The sounds of a country fiddle floated outside the Southern Cultural Heritage Center auditorium to Crawford Street as Sarah Rusche and Scott Williams of Jackson looked over artist Trish Madell’s selection of paintings.

Rusche came to Saturday’s Hobbs Freeman Arts and Nature Festival downtown to look at the sights, remember Freeman and visit a few friends.

“I wanted to see Nancy Mitchell (one of the vendors), who taught me art in high school, and I went to church with Hobbs Freeman and Gordon Cotton,” she said as she clutched a painting she bought from Madell.

Cotton, the retired director of the Old Court House Museum, was a friend of Freeman. “He was my best friend,” said Cotton, who was one of the program’s storytellers.

Rusche and Williams were among the estimated 600 people attending the Southern Cultural Heritage Foundation’s Hobbs Freeman Arts and Nature Festival, the closing event in a yearlong celebration of Freeman’s life and art.

Freeman, who died in 2009 at the age of 62, was a multi-talented artist, sculptor, builder, jewelry maker, cook and gardener, and a longtime member of the board of directors for the Vicksburg-Warren County Historical Society and the SCHF.

The event ended Saturday night with an outdoor showing of the movie “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” in the center’s courtyard.

“We’ve had a lot of people coming and going,” foundation executive director Annette Kirklin said. “This is wonderful.”

Visitors took advantage of clear skies and temperatures in the mid-80s to visit the 15 arts and crafts booths along the blocked off section of Crawford between Cherry and Adams streets, and most vendors reported steady business.

“It’s been pretty good,” Madell said. “We’ve sold some works, and I’m hoping someone will buy my catfish pinata.”

Just west of Madell’s booth, Lee Washington of Rolling Fork displayed his sculptures from cotton picking spindles and parts.

“I started doing this 10 years ago,” he said. “I teach agricultural mechanics at South Delta Vocational Center. I had to teach welding so I began welding parts together to improve my skills, and made stick figures.”

The crafts booths comprised a small section of the festival, which was spread across the old St. Francis Xavier campus that forms the Southern Cultural Heritage Center complex.

Visitors to the center’s auditorium could hear a mix of music from blues to blue grass, Civil War tunes, and harmony and jazz from groups like The Leatherwoods and Harmony from Mountain View Ark., and Vicksburg groups Nick & Julia Blake and Osgood and Blaque.

In the old St. Francis Xavier chapel, storytellers like Cotton and Doug Hassell entertained audiences with tales from personal experiences and family histories.

In the center’s conference rooms, people attended lectures on art, gardening and landscaping and examined exhibits of art using elements from nature.

The center’s gym was home for children’s stories and arts and crafts, where 6-year-old Vincent Wolfe, son of Tabitha and Richard Stanley of Vicksburg, made a picture using sticks, leaves and paper scraps.

“This has been a wonderful event,” Vincent’s grandmother, Tricia Brogden said. “I hope they make this an annual event.”

Her comments were echoed by Madell, who said she would like to see the festival become an annual event.

“This is absolutely wonderful,” said Sara Dionne, whose daughter, Julia Blake, had just finished performing. “The Southern Cultural Heritage Center is an asset to the community. This is excellent. I would like to see more of these.”

“A lot of people told me they would like to see this an annual event ,” Kirklin said. “It was very well received.”

The fesitval was funded by a grant from the National Park Service’s Lower Mississippi Delta Initiative. For it to continue, Kirklin said, the foundation would need to find sponsors.

And how would Hobbs Freeman feel about the event?

“Hobbs would secretly be pleased,” Cotton said. “I believe he would have loved it.”