MAGNOLIA DAYS Festival

In 1961 a group of local citizens started the Magnolia Homes Tour, Inc., as a tour of historic homes. It was held the third weekend each year and has grown into an attraction that brings thousands of visitors to Columbus, not only in May but also during the entire year.

The Magnolia Homes Tour quickly added horse-and-buggy rides, cabaret shows, food vendors, and a juried art show. In 1964 they added the Magnolia Belles program whereby young ladies in their senior year of high school were invited to act as goodwill ambassadors for the Homes Tour. Belles wear antebellum period costumes, which add a touch of Southern grace and charm to the event. To this day, the Belles are one of the highlights of the festival.

Before long, the Magnolia Homes Tour became a full-fledged festival with live music, merchandise vendors, food, games and rides for the kids, street dances, reenactments, melodramas, and river rides.

The Magnolia Homes Tour became incorporated as a nonprofit, 501(c)3, and ultimately became the Columbus Historical Preservation Trust (CHPT).

The Homes Tour continued over the years, often as a joint effort of CHPT and the Chamber of Commerce.

As can happen with many good things, the Homes Tour ultimately fizzled out. Two of the people who had become the spearheads of the event, Buddy Rau and George Fox, both passed away. CHPT continued with its historic preservation efforts and the Chamber continued with its job of advocating for area businesses and such. Nevertheless, sometime in the early 2000s, the festival went away.

In 2016 Chamber director Michelle Gorman, reignited that flame and brought the event back under the new name of Magnolia Festival. It took a couple of years to catch on, and by 2018 it was rebranded as Magnolia Days Festival and we were back on the Courthouse Square, with lots of kid’s activities, horse-and-buggy rides, a petting zoo, vendors, food trucks, and live music starting at 5 pm on Friday and going to 11 pm on Saturday. We estimated more than 3,500 people attended that year and our musical lineup included the Black Cat Choir, Robert Sanders, the Djuka Brothers, Drew Kennedy, Zack Walther Band, and Cody Canada.

We built on that success in 2019 with an estimated crowd of 4,300 over the course of the weekend, more vendors, more food trucks, and musical acts including the Shiner Hobo Band, Courtney Patton, Jon Stork, and Kyle Park. We also introduced our first car show to the festivities that year.

We had to skip the event in 2020 due to concerns related to the covid pandemic, but 2021 and 2022 were bigger and better than ever with roughly 5,000 people in attendance at the event over the course of the weekend.

The Chamber of Commerce and the Bicentennial committee have been putting plans in place to celebrate Columbus’ 200th Birthday along with the Magnolia Days Festival on the Courthouse Square in downtown Columbus on May 19 and 20,

2023 and it’s going to be a heck of a party! We are so honored that Todd and Morgan Barten are once again the presenting sponsor of this event, and Cavender Auto Country is the entertainment sponsor. We’ve received significant additional support from the City of Columbus, Colorado County, AL&M Building Supply, Columbus State Bank, Curly Oil, Inc., Five Oak Construction, Kotrla Air Conditioning & Heating, LLC, Lone Star Bank, Renee & Michael Long, Trish & Stanley Priest, Rohde Farms, The First State Bank, the Hill family, Toepperwein Air Conditioning & Refrigeration, Bold Plumbing, First National Bank, R&R Shaved Ice, American Ag, LLC, Bricker Pest Control, Columbus Animal Clinic, Columbus Butane Company, Columbus Historical Preservation Trust, Columbus Physical Therapy, Columbus, Texas LGBTQ+, Double G Realty, LLC, Harrell Dentistry Columbus, H-E-B, In Memory of Mary & Charlie Richter by Loretta & Mark Hellrung, Industry State

Bank, Jerry Mikeska’s Famous Bar-BQue, Mid-Coast Title Company, Nelson Earthworks, Positive Force Consulting, Potter’s Western Store, San Bernard Electric Company, Schneider Tire & Lube, The Colorado County Citizen, Walmart, Weishuhn Engineering, Inc., Wick Insurance Services and Zapalac Electric, Pam Schertz CPA, LLC, B. Peterman, Create Space, Sign Gypsies-Columbus, TX, LLC, and Charlene M. Morrison.

Without sponsors like these, we’d never be able to put on this free event. There will be lots of kid’s activities, food vendors, an 1800s reenactment, historic property tours, horse & wagon rides, Magnolia Belles, a car show, an art show, a family fun zone, shopping on the square, and free live music by Darrel Appelt and Phillip Brummett, Southbound 955, The Spazmatics, The Bandits, Czech Melody Masters, Hackemack’s Hofbrauhaus Combo, Midnight River Choir, Jon Stork, and Randy Rodgers Band.