40th Annual WellsFest

Overview

The festival has been named one of the Top 20 Events in the Southeast, has received the Governor's Award for Excellence in The Arts, and has received the GIVE (Governor's Initiative for Volunteer Excellence) Award.

Admission is FREE. 100% of the proceeds from this family-friendly music festival benefit a local non-profit. This year's beneficiary is the Community Foundation's WellsFest CARES Musicians Emergency Fund.

The festival kicks off with a pet parade at 9:30 a.m. followed by non-stop live music on two stages from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The music lineup will be released in September. Entertainers generously donate their time and talent to provide continuous music throughout the day.

WellsFest also features:

• A play area for children, featuring easy-to-win games, inflatables and creative activities
• A variety of food and dessert trucks
• An online auction of goods and services donated by local merchants and restaurants
• Vendor booths with arts, crafts and more
• A giant plant sale including unique and pass-a-long plants

HISTORY

WellsFest music festival has been sponsored by Wells Church for 40 years. "I've been a member of Wells Church for 40 years," said Keith Ferguson, organizer of WellsFest Cares. "I've been going there for probably about 45. And, we started Wells Fest - Malcolm White came up with an idea to do something to help support the renovation project that we had going on at Wells Church at the time. He came up with this idea of Wells Fest. We started it and had it there on Millsaps’ campus, right there at the corner of West Street. After that, Keith Tonkel said in typical Keith Tonkel fashion, 'Hey, let's do this and do something for somebody else. Let's give the money away to some other organization.' And so that's where that started. And the thing of it is, we've given over a million and a half dollars to organizations in the neighborhood, in the city, to help all kinds of different causes. The one thing that's made it possible for us to do that is the music. And for those 40 years, every one of those musicians has given their time freely without charge to make this thing a better place to help support the festival and the organization and to give back."

For more information, including vendor registration info visit wellschurch.org/wellsfest or call Wells Church 601-353-0658.