May Fest 2024 promises a joyful street

Blytheville, Arkansas – For May Fest 2024, Historic Downtown Blytheville was crowded with people all day.
The neighborhood came outside for a fun-filled day in the sun. May Fest 2024 was place on Saturday, May 11, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Main Street Blytheville. Festival guests meandered among local vendors offering food, clothes, games, a petting zoo, and more, as over 80 booths lined the downtown area.

Pepper, a 9-month-old porcupine, was available for customers to pet according to Wild Ones Ranch owner Wade Shapp.

“She is an African Crescent Porcupine, we got her from a zoo in Michigan,” Shapp said.

Pepper resides in the Brookland facility with a tortoise, a newborn kangaroo, and other goats. Still, she was well-liked in Blytheville.

“Since she was a bottle baby and all that stuff, she’s super sweet,” Shapp said.

To raise money and help others, two inhabitants of Blytheville went to the festival. 1994 saw the graduation of Venecia Middlebrooks and Deon Jones from Blytheville High School. The two women got together to sell barbecue as a fundraiser with their classmates.

“We raise money for scholarships for high school students,” Middlebrooks said. “Also we are raising money for our 30-year class reunion.”