Organizers gear up for Osceola Heritage Music Festival

OSCEOLA, Ark. (KAIT) - Mississippi County is just a week away from a weekend full of music.

The Osceola Heritage Music Festival is returning for its 23rd year in downtown Osceola on Friday, May 19, and Saturday, May 20.

This year’s festival highlights the history of music genres like blues and country.

A number of well-known blues artists are from Osceola according to people in the community. Some artists even stopped through the town to play traveling from St. Louis and Nashville.

Several artists will take the stage to pay homage to those who came before them.

“Kinda goes back to some of our roots with blues and country, really blues, we have a lot of blues artists that are from Osceola and that is how it originated,” said Michael Ephlin, chairman of the festival.

This year, festival organizers are honoring the group that gave them the inspiration to start it all 25 years ago: Julius Gibson and The Outcast Band.

The Osceola Heritage Music Festival pageant will also be returning this year on Saturday.

Several sponsors helped put the festival together this year, but organizers said a large contribution from Big River Steel helped bring it all together. The steel company is the presenting sponsor this year.

There will be food vendors and a kids zone for the entire family to enjoy the festival.

For more information about the festival, click here.

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