Tamales & Music in Mississippi This Weekend
This weekend, the Southern Cross Music And Tamale Festival debuts in Jackson, Mississippi. Hosted by Southern Crossroads radio show, the festival is billed as “the epic music and culinary experience of the Deep South” and will feature tamales and other Southern food paired with drinks and music from some of the region’s finest musicians. Tamales will also come from different regions and include the early Mississippi version straight from the Delta to those wrapped in banana leaves and corn husks and filled with everything from beef to crawfish and sweet potatoes.
Musicians in the lineup include WAR, the Delta’s own Steve Azar, South Louisiana’s Marc Broussard, Grammy-nominated Dorothy Moore, bluesman Bobby Rush, Chattanooga’s Strung Like A Horse, Hope Waits and New Orleans’ Eric Lindell. We’d expect nothing less from a radio show that focuses on music from the South, but it’s still an impressive lineup for a first-year festival. Add in cooking demos and art, all indoors at the Mississippi Coliseum for less than $20 bucks a day, and there’s no reason not to attend.
Want to go? The Hilton-Jackson on County Line Road has special $89 nightly rates for festival attendees and includes shuttle service to and from the event, breakfast and even a late checkout. If you can’t make it, there’s always next year. Southern Cross has formed the International Tamale Consortium and the first International Tamale Challenge will be held during the festival in 2013.
Pictured is Chef Kevin Rathbun’s Candied Pecan & Sweet Potato Tamale. Get the recipe here.
Jackson’s Music And Tamale Festival takes place August 10-11, and tickets are $18 a day. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. on Friday and 11:30 a.m. on Saturday.
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