It wasn’t hard to find Lake Fest at Eagle Lake.

All a visitor had to do was slow down on Miss. 465, turn left at the welcome sign on Eagle Lake Shore Road, drive between the cars parked on both sides of the road and follow it to the Sanders House property, where music from the festival stage drifted across the property calling people to come by, visit, enjoy some gumbo and stay awhile.

What began three years ago by Eagle Lake Matters, an organization of Eagle Lake residents and property owners, Lake Fest is a community event designed to get people from the surrounding areas to visit Eagle Lake and get to know the area better. It has since become a major event attracting almost 1,000 people this year.

This year’s visitors walked around the Sanders property under clear skies, shaded from the sun by hardwoods and cooled by a breeze off Eagle Lake, to look over the wares offered by crafts booths and sample the gumbo, barbecue chicken, hamburgers, hotdogs, snow cones and ice cream.

The Eagle Lake Volunteer Fire Department had two of its trucks on display and a booth set up nearby. Festivalgoers also heard a Memorial Day speech by Maj. Brian Olier of the Mississippi National Guard and an Iraq War veteran, and saw a flyby by an AT-6 from the Southern Heritage Air Museum in Tallulah, La.

For many residents, it was a chance to meet former neighbors who “moved back to town” —Vicksburg.

“The water just draws you back,” said former resident Julie Ashley. “I love being up here with lots of friends and visiting.”

Dorothy Hite, another former resident who moved back to Vicksburg last year, said she loves coming back “to my lake family.”

“We make sure she comes back,” said Dorothy Redden, a former Eagle Lake Matters board member and longtime resident. “She can go to town, but she’s got to come visit us.”

Debbie LeCompte of Houma, La., whose husband Glenn prepared the chicken and sausage gumbo — “handmade from Houma, La.” — served at Lake Fest has had a home there since 2005, when they evacuated South Louisiana in the face of Hurricane Katrina.

“We use it as a summer place for the family and as a place to go if we have to evacuate again,” she said. “We like it up here.”

A first-timer was Angela Grantham of Vicksburg, who was operating a booth called “Mason Jar Junkies,” and selling Mason jars turned into lamps.

“We saw them on Pinterest, and liked the idea,” she said. “This is our debut. We’ve been selling them online and done well. This the first time we’ve had a booth and sold them out in public.”

Business, she said, was good.

On the stage, Deanna, was performing her one-woman show of musical selections.

Not far away, Gloria Harper was sitting in her lawn chair, enjoying the music.

“We’re here camping,” she said. “We decided to enjoy the weekend camping. I like the music. I like Deanna and The Chill, which will be playing this afternoon. I’m just relaxing.”

Deanna gave way to Olier, who talked about the meaning of Memorial Day and his 13 personal heroes, including Shane Pugh, a medic with Mississippi’s 155th Brigade Combat Team, who was killed from wounds he received from an improvised explosive device.

During his address, the AT-6 crossed the sky. Olier stopped, looked up, then told the crowd “let’s give the pilot of that plane a hand.” The group responded with loud applause.

He then resumed his address.

“Our military training is that when a medic goes down we first go to help him,” Olier said, adding Pugh refused treatment and instructed the troopers in caring for the other wounded. Pugh he, said, received the Silver Star for his actions.

He asked the audience while they celebrated Memorial Day to “remember to give thanks for those who gave all of their future for what we have today.”