Some events canceled, moved; others to go on|[9/9/05]
Published 12:00 am Friday, September 9, 2005
With about 700 evacuees in Vicksburg due to Hurricane Katrina for an indefinite time, some events set for September and October have been canceled and others will go on as planned.
Canceled events include Mississippi Musicians’ Hall of Fame events set for Oct. 1-8 at the Vicksburg Convention Center. Larry Gawronski, center director, said the week of events will be rescheduled.
“We have canceled or rescheduled all of our events through Oct. 15,” he said, because the downtown center is being used as an American Red Cross shelter. “People have been very understanding. For most, we’ve been able to reschedule.”
Also scheduled for Saturday was a first-time Vicksburg performance by Ballet Magnificat!, the Christian ballet company out of Jackson. The performance was to be at City Auditorium, but a National Guard medical unit, sent by Gov. Haley Barbour, has been there since Monday.
The Audubon Nature Tour, scheduled for Oct. 18-20 has been rescheduled to take place in the spring.
The second annual Carr Central High School All-Class Reunion, originally set for the first weekend in October, has also been canceled. Last year’s event brought more than 700 former Vicksburg residents together, many from out-of-town.
Ethel Lagrone Pickens, organizer for the reunion, said next year’s reunion will take the place of this year’s by following the same agenda. The date has been set for Oct. 6-7, 2006.
Pickens purposely set the reunion on the same weekend as Vicksburg’s Downtown Fall Festival. The festival, along with the Old Courhouse Flea Market and Rebstock, will carry on as planned.
Erin Hearn, assistant director of Vicksburg’s Main Street program, said the weekend will come at a good time for evacuees, who will have established residency in the city by then.
“By then, we’ll still have people living here and they’ll need something to do to keep their minds off things,” Hearn said. “At some point, you have to have some sort of sense of normalcy.”
Events still scheduled are: