Coast gears up for Mississippi Bicentennial

It’s history in the making. Gulfport will be the first city to host the Mississippi Bicentennial Celebration. People from all over the state and some from around the nation are coming to the Coast to fill Gulfport’s Centennial Plaza’s grounds this coming Friday and Saturday.
Celebrating 200 years of Mississippi, preparations are rocking, rolling, and coming along strong for the 12,000 people expected for our state’s bicentennial in Gulfport this coming weekend. City of Gulfport Public Information Officer Chris Vignes said, “I’ve got calls from Dallas, Shreveport, Jackson, and Meridian. People are coming all down to celebrate what we have here.”
Mississippi was officially recognized as a state on December 10th, 1817. Friday marks the start of the two day celebration in honor of the state’s 200th anniversary. City officials coordinating the event say even with free admission, the big party will rake in some tourism dollars for Gulfport, serving as a window of opportunity to showcase the Coast. Cynthia Dobbs Sutton with Ocean Springs Chamber of Commerce said, “We’re going to have artist demonstrations, all kinds of kids and hands-on activities. We’re going to have canine demonstrations with the Gulf Coast Fire and Rescue.”
Grammy Award winners The Band Perry will headline the Governor’s Concert. Exhibits will run 9 to 5 on Friday and 10 until 4 on Saturday with lots of activities, history, food, and music. “Fifty exhibitor booths showcasing everything special on the Mississippi Gulf Coast from Maritime and Seafood Museum to Infinity Space Center,” said Dobbs Sutton.
Centennial Plaza was actually built to celebrate Mississippi’s centennial, but when World War II broke out that didn’t happen. This is the first time Mississippi will celebrate a big milestone and it will be right here in Gulfport. “So to have it here is really special. Of course it’s a green space on the Gulf of Mexico, but we’ll have so many people coming out here to see all the different components and everything is free,” said Vignes.
For more information, log on to ms200.org.