- Browse the schedule. Catch a performance. Attend a workshop. Visit an exhibit. Bring the kids to an Artie event. Spend a day exploring Hattiesburg and see where it takes you.
Every June, Hattiesburg is cleverly referred to as Baseburg.
If you’ve spent any time in the Hub City this time of year, you know exactly what that means. Southern Miss flags flutter outside businesses. Restaurants fill up before first pitch. Black and gold shirts are everywhere. Conversations bounce from batting averages to postseason hopes while baseball fans make their way toward the ballpark.Not to mention, there are also several youth baseball camps, travel ball leagues, and other league championships happening around the area.
It’s one of my favorite times to visit Hattiesburg.
But here’s what I love most about June in the Hub City: while one crowd is heading to Pete Taylor Park, another is heading somewhere entirely different.
They’re carrying concert programs instead of scorecards.
They’re filing into theaters, galleries, churches, libraries, and performance halls.
They’re gathering for FestivalSouth.
For a few weeks every summer, Hattiesburg manages to be two things at once—one of Mississippi’s great baseball towns and one of its greatest arts destinations.
And somehow, it works beautifully.
Presented by the Hattiesburg Concert Association, FestivalSouth has become one of Mississippi’s most distinctive festivals. What keeps bringing me back is that it doesn’t feel like one event. It feels like an entire city deciding that art matters.
The arts aren’t tucked away inside a single building or confined to one weekend. They spill out across Hattiesburg and show up in all kinds of places and in all kinds of forms. That’s what I love most about FestivalSouth. It brings the arts to life on so many platforms throughout the city.
On any given day, you might find chamber music, a poetry workshop, a photography exhibit, a children’s storytelling event, and a Broadway-style musical all happening under the FestivalSouth banner.
There aren’t many festivals in Mississippi that can say that.
Walk through Hattiesburg during FestivalSouth, and you’ll hear it before you see it.
The sound of a piano drifting from a rehearsal room.
The laughter of children gathered for an Artie event.
The buzz of conversation before a performance begins.
Applause spilling onto the sidewalk after a concert.
For a few weeks, the arts become part of the city’s everyday rhythm.
One evening, audiences may be watching Disney’s Newsies performed by the Hub City Players. Earlier that same day, others might be attending Haydn in Hattiesburg, listening to chamber music in an intimate setting. Later in the festival, visitors can enjoy performances such as Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, American Echoes, and Mississippi Sounds, each bringing a distinct style and perspective to the stage.
But FestivalSouth isn’t limited to music.
Visitors can browse photography exhibits like First 3, No Flash, attend storytelling programs such as We All Might Could Use to Hear a Story, participate in workshops, explore visual art, or enjoy free outdoor events downtown. The festival embraces music, dance, visual art, theater, literature, film, and education in a way that feels both ambitious and surprisingly accessible.
That’s one of the things I appreciate most about it.
You don’t have to know the first thing about classical music to enjoy a concert. You don’t have to be an artist to wander through a gallery. You don’t need a literature degree to appreciate a good story.
You simply show up.
And chances are you’ll discover something you weren’t expecting.
Families, especially, will find plenty to love. Artie Events for Families introduce children to books, music, movement, storytelling, and creativity through hands-on experiences designed just for them. Whether it’s Artie’s Celebration of American Authors, Artists, and Musicians, Anansi Stories, Artie’s Adventures in Writing, or Dancing with Artie, the goal is simple: help young people experience the arts in a way that is fun, welcoming, and memorable.
Watching children become completely absorbed in a story, a song, or an art project is a reminder that creativity doesn’t have to be complicated to be meaningful.
Sometimes all it takes is a little curiosity.
FestivalSouth also invests in the future through its Youth Ambassadors program, providing local students opportunities to learn, volunteer, and engage with the arts. In a state known for producing musicians, writers, artists, and performers, that’s an investment worth making.
What I find myself thinking about most, though, isn’t a specific performance.
It’s the atmosphere.
It’s stepping into a downtown coffee shop and overhearing people discuss a concert they attended the night before.
It’s seeing visitors stroll from one venue to another on a warm June evening.
It’s watching a city embrace both baseball and the arts at once, without feeling the need to choose between them.
In fact, that’s what makes Hattiesburg so special this time of year.
The city doesn’t become Baseburg or an arts destination.
It becomes both.
A family might spend the afternoon at a baseball game and the evening at a performance. A visitor who came to town for sports may stumble across an art exhibit. Someone attending a concert may discover a favorite local restaurant or coffee shop along the way.
If you’ve never experienced FestivalSouth, this is your year.
Browse the schedule. Catch a performance. Attend a workshop. Visit an exhibit. Bring the kids to an Artie event. Spend a day exploring Hattiesburg and see where it takes you.
You can find the complete schedule at FestivalSouth.org.
You might come for Baseburg.
But don’t be surprised if you leave talking about the stage.
Meredith Biesinger
