Connect with us

Arts & Entertainment

26 Years of Art, Food and Music in Oxford, Celebrated During the Double Decker Arts Festival That Starts Tonight

Published

on

Thousands travel from near and far to Oxford, MS during the weekend of Double Decker Arts Festival to shop for handmade goods and see great bands perform. Credit: Visit Oxford

Oxford is celebrating the 26th annual award-winning Double Decker Arts Festival this weekend that pays homage to local food, art and music — and of course, the city’s iconic double decker buses.

The red double-decker bus, imported from England in 1994, serves as the inspiration and centerpiece of the two-day celebration that takes place in the historic Courthouse Square.

Now the recipient of more than 25 awards, including the 2022 Best Large Festival by the Mississippi Tourism Association, Best Festival by Mississippi Magazine and a Top 20 event by the Southeast Tourism Society, Double Decker brings in over 75,000 attendees for a weekend celebrating food, music and the arts.

Beginning with the 2015 event, each year a local artist is selected from multiple submissions to be featured as the festival’s “official art,” which is printed on the festival t-shirts, posters and light pole banners that are displayed around the downtown square.

Grammy award-nominated artist, performer and songwriter, Marcus King, will be this year’s headliner on Saturday night.

The featured artist is Blake Gore. Gore grew up in North Mississippi and attended school at the University of Mississippi. Before he embarked upon his art career, Gore worked as a career coach and instructor for universities. It was during his time at Vanderbilt University that Gore began drawing miniature artwork using a .15mm pen and received a great response from the public.

Although Gore hasn’t considered himself an artist very long, he first exhibited at the Double Decker Arts Festival in 2019. Since that time, Gore has grown his business to 20-30 shows per year across the country, but still considers Double Decker as his favorite show.

A Southern showcase – from tempting tasty bites to inspiring one-of-a-kind art.

Like any respected Southern tradition, the festival has grown while preserving its original integrity and charm. Food vendors offer tried and true Southern sensations, from snow cones to freshly fried fish to pizza by the slice, all from local vendors – many offering a specialty item that can only be found during the event.

Juried by a panel of local artists, the artist showcase brings more than 140 arts vendors to the event, spanning a variety of media including drawings, glass, jewelry, mixed media, painting, photography, print-making and sculpture.

The art vendor showcase is only on Saturday, but the Oxford Artist Guild will be set up on Friday in the Boles Wiley Alley on the Square for a preview.

On Saturday, The Graduate Oxford Kid Zone will be located in the Lafayette County Chancery Building parking lot from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. The cost is $20 per child to enter into the Kid Zone.

Local bespoke denim outfitter Blue Delta Jeans Company will host their “Blues Delta Blues Alley” in the alley located beside The Lyric from 12-4 p.m.

This year, featured artists will include Mac and Lucy, Joe Austin and the Tallahatchies, Honey Island Swamp Band and Mr. Sipp.

Jim Belushi to visit Oxford

Performer, medical cannabis advocate and Belushi’s Farm founder Jim Belushi will be making a public appearance at the Double Decker Arts Festival on April 29.

Southern Sky Brands, a Mississippi provider of plant-based medicine, will have a VIP booth on the Square, and Belushi will be there signing autographs and taking photos with the public from 2 to 4 p.m. on that Saturday.

Belushi will be in town promoting season 3 of his show “Growing Belushi” on Discovery.

Double Decker Arts Festival has an amazing weekend of music planned for Friday night and all day Saturday.

Click here to read about the headliners for Friday and Saturday.

Click here to read about the other bands and solo performers


Thousands listen in at the 2022 Double Decker Arts Festival. Credit: Visit Oxford

Full Musical Lineup

Friday

9:00 PM – Ashley McBryde

7:45 PM – Chapel Hart

6:15 PM – The Stews

Saturday

8:30 p.m. – Marcus King
6:30 p.m. – Blackberry Smoke
5 p.m. – Lissie
3:30 p.m. – Southern Avenue
2 p.m. – Sensational Barnes Brothers
12:30 p.m. – Vieux Farka Touré
11 a.m. – The Mississippians Jazz Ensemble

The festival’s 2023 Presenting Sponsor is the University of Mississippi Museum gifted to them by Ole Miss Athletics. Nicholas Air is the stage sponsor and Faulkner Sponsors include Specialty Orthopedic Group and NE Sparc.

The Double Decker Arts Festival has a new app available to download from both the App Store and Google Play.

The free app has the full schedule of musical acts, interactive maps, shuttle information, locations of all the artists at the festival and their booth numbers, links to social media pages and suggested hashtags and a full FAQ page of all things Double Decker.

Click here to download the new DDAF app.


Courtesy of Visit Oxford. News Editor Alyssa Schnugg contributed to this story.

Advertisement

Ole Miss Men’s Basketball

Mon, Nov 4Long Island University Logovs Long Island University W, 90-60
Fri, Nov 8Grambling Logovs GramblingW, 66-64
Tue, Nov 12South Alabama Logovs South AlabamaW, 64-54
Sat, Nov 16Colorado State Logovs Colorado StateW, 84-69
Thu, Nov 21Oral Roberts Logovs Oral RobertsL, 100-68
Thu, Nov 28BYU Logovs BYUW, 96-85 OT
Fri, Nov 29Purdue Logovs 13 PurdueL, 80-78
Tue, Dec 3Louisville Logo@ LouisvilleW, 86-63
Sat, Dec 7Lindenwood Logovs LindenwoodW, 86-53
Sat, Dec 14Georgia Logovs Southern MissW, 77-46
Tue, Dec 17Southern Logovs SouthernW, 74-61
Sat, Dec 21Queens University Logovs Queens UniversityW, 80-62
Sat, Dec 28Memphis Logo@ MemphisL, 87-70
Sat, Jan 4Georgia Logovs GeorgiaW, 63-51
Wed, Jan 8Arkansas Logo@ 23 ArkansasW, 73-66
Sat, Jan 11LSU Logovs LSUW, 77-65
Tue, Jan 14Alabama Logo@ 5 AlabamaW, 74-64
Sat, Jan 18Mississippi State Logo@ 17 Mississippi StateL, 81-84
Wed, Jan 22Texas A&M State Logovs 13 Texas A&ML, 62-63
Sat, Jan 25Missouri Logo@ Missouri5:00 PM
SECN
Wed, Jan 29Texas Logovs Texas8:00 PM
ESPN2
Sat, Feb 1Auburn Logovs 2 Auburn3:00 PM
TBA
Tue, Feb 4Kentucky Logovs 10 Kentucky6:00 PM
ESPN
Sat, Feb 8LSU Logo@ LSU7:30 PM
SECN
Wed, Feb 12South Carolina Logo@ South Carolina6:00 PM
SECN
Sat, Feb 15Mississippi State Logovs 17 Mississippi State5:00 PM
TBA
Sat, Feb 22Auburn Logo@ Vanderbilt2:30 PM
SECN
Wed, Feb 26Auburn Logo@ 2 Auburn6:00 PM
TBA
Sat, Mar 1Oklahoma Logovs 12 Oklahoma1:00 PM
TBA
Wed, Mar 5Tennessee Logovs 1 Tennessee8:00 PM
TBA
Sat, Mar 8Florida Logo@ 6 Florida5:00 PM
SECN

@ COPYRIGHT 2024 BY HT MEDIA LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. HOTTYTODDY.COM IS AN INDEPENT DIGITAL ENTITY NOT AFFILIATED WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI.