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NATCHEZ — The 2021 Longwood Music Festival is next Saturday, Oct. 30, staged in front of the beautiful and famous octagonal-shaped antebellum house. 

Lou Ellen Stout, who has been organizing the Longwood Music Festival each year since 2015, said she couldn’t think of a better place to be in the entire country than in Natchez. 

Stout added the most famous house in Natchez is Longwood, making it the perfect place to host local artists and support them as well as promote the city, she said.

“One time I was in New York and there on a marquee, in the middle of Times Square, was a picture of Longwood. I can’t tell you how great it felt to see that there, and it should be. It is the best place in the world,” she said.

Each year, the festival works to promote the city while also supporting the Miss-Lou’s up-and-coming musicians.

“We were the first ones to host a concert for the original Bishop Gunn band before they took off internationally,” Stout said.

She added, “I don’t pick bad people to play at Longwood. If I have repeat bands, it’s only because people love them and want to see them back another year.”

Headlining the 2021 Longwood Music Festival is “Sullivan’s Hallow,” who played a great show in 2020 prompting them to have another audience this year, Stout said.

Also performing Saturday are “Dalton Wayne and the Warmidillos,” who Stout said is a far cry from “a cover band.”

“They play a lot of their own original songs,” she said.

“The Anteeks,” and young musicians Tyler Gregg and Bryce McGlothin in their band “Easily Distracted” will also be back to perform at Longwood Saturday.

“They’re both very talented young men,” Stout said of Gregg and McGlothin. “We’ve had them for four years so they must be good. And the Anteeks are a crowd favorite. People request them to come back every year.”

Also playing this year is war veteran Rowdy Johnson, who Stout described as a “hillbilly Rockstar” with the “outlaw kind of stuff” comparable to Hank Williams Jr.

Johnson has performed with well-known stars, such as Charlie Daniels and Merle Haggard, she said.

Gates to the festival open at 11 a.m. Saturday and music starts at noon, Stout said.

Tickets $15 each and kids who are years old 10 and younger can attend free with a lot to keep them entertained, including a Halloween carnival and haunted hayride that lasts from 5 to 8 p.m., she said.

Stout also thanked the event’s many sponsors — or “crowd partners” — who make the festival happen year after year. 

“We want to support Natchez, to support people and we want to support good music. We want to support the kids too. We want them to have a good time,” Stout said. “Organizing this for the past six years, it’s worth it. Build it up, keep it up and rock on.”