Raw States
World Catfish Festival
Belzoni, MS · Food & Drink
- When
- April 10, 2027
- Where
- Downtown, 102 Castleman St · Belzoni · MS
- Cost
- Not confirmed
- Status
- Approximate: based on past editions, not announced yet
Belzoni calls itself the Catfish Capital of the World, and its namesake festival features what organizers call the world's largest fish fry alongside a catfish eating contest and more than two hundred vendors. It reached its 49th edition in 2026.
The history within reach
- World Catfish Festivalsame spot
Belzoni calls itself the Catfish Capital of the World, and its namesake festival features what organizers call the world's largest fish fry alongside a catfish eating contest and more than two hundred vendors.
Delta planters looking for something to do with heavy buckshot soil that cotton had exhausted flooded it and raised catfish instead, and Mississippi ended up producing most of the farm-raised catfish in the country.
King chopped cotton in this county and played on the corner of Church and Second for tips, then went to Memphis, took a radio job, and spent the rest of his life on the road, over 300 shows a year into his seventies.
B.B.
Patton played behind his head and between his legs fifty years before Hendrix, worked Dockery Farms, and taught or influenced almost everyone who came after him, Son House, Howlin' Wolf, Willie Brown.