No Rebstock set this year

Published 12:00 am Sunday, September 28, 2008

Rebstock, a folk music festival usually the first weekend in October, is taking a break this year, but organizers hope it will return in 2009.

In the past, Rebstock has been the same weekend as the Old Court House Flea Market, which is next weekend. It was started in 1997 by former Old Court House Museum curator Gordon Cotton with the goal of preserving string music in Mississippi.

However, attendance and financial support have dwindled.

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“Rebstock did not have the appeal that we had hoped it would,” said Cotton.

The event’s peak was in 1999, when about 300 people gathered at the Old Court House Museum to hear the Leatherwoods of Mountain View, Ark. Rebstock’s lowest attendance was 100, in 2006.

In other changes, organizers of the Old Court House Flea Market have decided to schedule the Confederate Christmas Ball for every other year instead of annually. The main reason was money.

“We barely broke even. It was a heck of a lot of work, so we changed it to every other year,” Cotton said. “The Balfour House was sold, so we moved the Balfour Ball to the Old Court House Museum, but we are hoping to move it back to the Balfour House, which is where it was originally, in 1862.”

The last ball was in December 2007.