Roots, Rhythm and Arts Festival returns to Downtown Gulfport

Each year, the Roots, Rhythm, and Arts Festival is a free-form celebration in all things creative.

Downtown Gulfport hummed with creative energy Saturday. Out near Chandeleur Island Brewing Company, artists soaked in the atmosphere of live music and painted freely.

In addition to checking out the visual buffet, visitors learned about living art, performers wore eye-catching outfits, and acted as living sculptures. Performance Artist Ava Dyal said, “I am just live art, so we have a patriotic pinup over there down the street — and it’s just candy and I’m a southern belle, and it’s just like a traditional thing. It’s like an art piece come to life. I actually got to see people this year, and compared to the other years, we didn’t really get to celebrate Mardi Gras. And this year I feel it’s kind of gone down and now we can finally celebrate in person, so.”

The artists were from the Island School of Performing Arts located in Gulfport.