Second Saturday has now gone regional. In addition to Second Saturday in Natchez, Ferriday is hosting free live music at Rockabilly Plaza from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Rockabilly Plaza is a re-purposed grocery store converted into a cool and funky events venue.

Ferriday is known worldwide as a music town dating back to the 1940s. Haney’s Big House brought in national touring acts that would influence native son Jerry Lee Lewis and his double first cousins Mickey Gilley and Jimmy Swaggart.

In the 1960s Ferriday was home to three record labels.

In present-day Ferriday the Delta Music Museum celebrates musicians and singers along the Mississippi River from Memphis to New Orleans.

The Arcade Theater hosts The Gene King Band each month and has special music events and touring exhibits connected to the museum as well as being home base for the Ferriday Song Fest each October.

In 2010 Rockabilly Plaza was added to the music mix in Ferriday and is home to the Ferriday Soul Survivors Festival each May.

The renovation at Rockabilly is being completed with a $27,000 grant. The well-established Delta Music Festival, previously an April event, has been moved to September this year.

Ferriday is also being granted $124,000 to create Rockabilly Park, which will connect with Rockabilly Plaza.

Bids will soon go out for an $800,000 renovation of the railroad building across the street from the plaza, which will be called the Ferriday Music Hall.

The Park, Plaza and Music Hall will make up the Ferriday Fair Grounds.

Mayor Glen McGlothin encourages everyone to bring a chair and a bag lunch, and come sit in the shaded Rockabilly Plaza with friends and family while listening to Andy Guida and Ben Lewis cover songs from R&B, Pop, Rock and Country.

Saturday is the first in a summer-long series of music from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Rockabilly Plaza at the corner of First Street and Texas.

We hope to see you there.

Tommy Polk is an organizer of the Second Saturday program in Ferriday.