NATCHEZ — This Saturday, people who visit the Pilgrimage Garden Club’s famous octagonal-shaped house can fall back in time during Longwood’s inaugural Fall Festival.

The festival lasts from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. and entry is $10 for adults 18 years old and older at the gate and free for anyone under 18, Longwood Manager Esther Mingee said.

Longwood’s first-ever fall festival will showcase the works of nearly 20 artists, artisans and craftsmen — many of them with skills that aren’t seen as much at 21st-century craft fairs — and their skills will be appropriately demonstrated on the historic grounds of the 1860s mansion, Mingee said.

“This is our first-ever Longwood Fall Festival … and like a true outdoor fall festival we are going to have artisans, artists and craftsmen who will be selling and demonstrating their work,” Mingee said. “Some of these demonstrations will be from very skilled artisans who have skills that we don’t see as much — skills of the past.”

Mingee said the grounds would host traditional craft booths with timeless creations for sale such as jewelry, paintings, drawings, folk art, woodworking, pottery, photography and holiday crafts. 

Skilled artisans will also provide demonstrations of skills past such as crocheting, knitting, tatting, fiddle making, indigo dyeing, pumpkin carving, soap making, weaving and wood carving, Mingee said.

Games such as horseshoes, ring toss, checkers from the past will also entertain children while their parents browse through the craft booths, she said. A food truck will provide home cooking and soft drinks.

“We’re expecting a crisp sunny day this Saturday during the festival. It’s going to be wonderful, and all held out on the grounds of Longwood,” she said. “We’ve found so many who are interested in the fall festival just in the few months we’ve talked about it, and we’re hoping to make it an annual event that will become even larger next year.”

For more information, contact Mingee at 601-442-5193.