Peter Anderson Festival is this Weekend

The City of Ocean Springs is in the final hours and counting down until the 38th annual Peter Anderson Festival. Vendors are out right now setting up for what some residents say is the biggest weekend of the year.
The City of Ocean Springs expects 150,000 people to attend the 38th annual Peter Anderson Festival, a weekend local artists and vendors have waited for all year, vendors like owner of Restorative Nature Tea Shawn Chambers. He was setting up his booth early. A resident of the Coast for years, Chambers has seen what the streets look like when the festival begins. “Just shut down and packed. Thousands and thousands of people.”
This is Chambers’ first year at the arts and crafts festival, joining more than 400 artists and over 900 vendors. “I think it’s a great opportunity for a lot of local businesses, local brands and local artists to spread their stuff out to the Coast and not only for local people, but a lot of regional people coming in as well,” said Chambers.
Visitors, vendors, and artists come from all over the United States, according to the festival’s board of directors who were handing out parking maps and information downtown today. Pam Moeller with the Peter Anderson Festival Board of Directors said, “I’ve noticed a lot today that this is a lot of people’s first time to Ocean Springs. We’ve had one person come in from Oklahoma, Montana, a lot of people that have come, this is their first time and it is a really good event for the city.”
Hundreds of people in the streets also opens the door for local restaurants and businesses to showcase what Ocean Springs has to offer. Artuero Barajas, owner of Mosaics, said, “Full menu inside and full bar and live music all day long. We created a bigger stage so we can have live music all day long both days.”
The festival runs from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. “There’s food, there’s fun, there’s bands, just a great family fun event,” said Moeller.
Downtown Ocean Springs will be closed to traffic starting at 3 o’clock on Saturday morning and will reopen to traffic Sunday at 7 p.m.