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Community Information

Starkville is a vibrant city with abundant access to cultural events, a thriving downtown and a full offering of leisure activities to help create a wonderful quality of life.


Festivals and Events

Art in the Garden
www.starkvillearts.org
Held each May, this event allows you to tour beautiful gardens while enjoying area artists and performers.
Bulldog Bash
www.msubulldogbash.com
Each fall, Downtown Starkville serves as the venue for this outdoor event featuring a fall pep rally with food vendors, live music on two stages, Bully and the MSU Cheerleaders.
Charles Templeton Ragtime Jazz Festival
library.msstate.edu/ragtime/festival/
Used as a means to enhance research in the area of Ragtime music, this festival is comprised of a blend of major and mini concerts, seminars and tours of the Charles H. Templeton, Sr. Music Museum.
Cotton District Arts Festival and Taste of Starkville
www.starkvillearts.org
This annual April festival features a 5K run, pet parade, juried arts and crafts show, live music on three stages, plant show, art show, and food from area restaurants.
International Fiesta
www.hcdc.msstate.edu
Celebrate and experience the community's various cultures and food and dancing each April at this fun festival.
Magnolia Independent Film Festival
This annual February festival offers a chance to view more than two dozen independent films.
Pumpkinpalooza
visit.starkville.org/pumpkin
Enjoy a downtown family event featuring a locally-grown pumpkin patch, trick-or-treating with local merchants, live music and other fun, family-centered events.
Sturgis South All-Bike Motorcycle Rally
www.sturgismsrally.com
Come enjoy this weekend in August that is packed with events, including a bike show and games, area rides/tours, and live music.

Outdoor Recreation

Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee
www.fws.gov/refuge/Noxubee/
Other Outdoor Recreational Opportunities near Starkville
John W. Starr Memorial Forest, an 8,200-acre natural woodlands park
Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, which offers 1,000 miles of shoreline and 110,000 acres of land and water for fishing, boating, skiing, camping, hiking, and swimming.
In addition, Starkville has a Parks and Recreation Department which maintains six public parks within the city limits (662-323-2294 http://starkvilleparks.com/).
Starkville in Motion promotes bike trails, hiking trails, sidewalks, and more within the city (www.starkvilleinmotion.org).

Starkville Entertainment

Starkville offers a variety of entertainment opportunities from concerts to rodeos. Check the calendar of events at http://www.cityofstarkville.org/ to see what's coming up.

Other Entertainment Options

Distinctive districts

Cotton District
The most photographed area in the community and a model for "New Urbanism," this district was formerly a collection of row houses and shanties associated with the neighborhood cotton mill. This district is now filled with award-winning, brightly colored buildings evocative of Savannah, Charleston and New Orleans.
Downtown Starkville
662-323-3322
www.starkville.org
The city's earliest identity as "Boardtown" disappeared with the sawmill and boardwalks, but Starkville has kept the flavor and character of its "boomtown" years around the turn of the 20th century. Well-preserved churches and the 1925 Hotel Chester (on the National Register of Historic Places) add character and charm.
Nash Street Historic District
MSU scholars and staff members built this neighborhood, Starkville's earliest subdivision, in Tudor-Revival, bungalow and craftsman styles, dating from the 1930s and 1940s.
Greensboro Street Historic District
The cotton-hauling wagons that negotiated "Greensboro Road" to the Tombigbee River were gone by the time Starkville's prosperous merchants and professionals made Greensboro Street the address of choice for their Victorian, Tudor-Revival, bungalow and craftsman homes from the 1860s through the 1930s.
Overstreet Historic District
These houses, built close to downtown and to Overstreet School (circa 1894), form Starkville's largest historic district. Homes range from ornate Queen Anne to mid-20th century craftsman and bungalow styles. An occasional cook's house or smoke house can be seen behind the main houses and are reminders of another era. The district is bordered by Washington Street to the west, Wood Street to the south, South Montgomery to the east, and Hogan Street to the north.