Super SOUPer Mudfest

Big Buzz Blog - February 2024

The origins of the enormously popular and oddly-named celebration of mud, local potters, good food and community spirit, in Old Town Bay St. Louis. 
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- story by LB Kovac, photos by Ellis Anderson 
(originally published in 2018, but updated for 2024 by Kirby Rhodes)

There's always a line of people waiting to get first choice of the bowls available for purchase.

This year's SOUPer Mudfest kicks off Saturday, March 9, at 2pm at the United Methodist Church. There will be over 26 soups to choose from! Come early for the best bowl selection. 
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The story of the Second Saturday Artwalk SOUPer Mudfest starts like so many stories in our area – with Hurricane Katrina.

Nancy Moynan, SOUPer Mudfest founder, says the Bay was hit hard by the record-setting hurricane, but “I had already dug my heels in, and I wasn’t going to let something like a silly hurricane make me leave.” 

From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success; in this case, the “rose” is Bay St. Louis’s main cultural attractions, the Old Town Historic District. 
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Nancy Moynan, creator of SOUPer Mudfest.

The Second Saturday Artwalk has drawn locals and visitors from across the region for over 30 years.  Every monthly celebration offers live music, art openings and shop/restaurant specials. 

Specially themed Second Saturdays, like "Dolly Should" in January and "Frida Fest" in July, have become beloved highlights of the year.  

And there's SOUPer Mudfest each March, now in its 16th year.  It's expected to attract thousands of people to the Old Town district during its one-night-only stint. 

​And, with just $25, you can be a part of the festivities supporting Hancock County Tourism, the Old Town Merchants Association, Ruth's Roots Blessing Box, and various local artists. 
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​Despite Moynan’s positive attitude, she and the rest of the Bay St. Louis community had a steep hill to climb in the wake of one of our country’s worst natural disasters. Before SOUPer Mudfest, there was just a “mudfest.” Moynan said, “It was disgusting downtown” in the days after Katrina.

​The streets downtown, where Moynan and other community members had their businesses, were practically rubble, and “everyone was wearing shrimp boots to get around,” she said. 

With conditions so bad, it was difficult to attract shoppers. 
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But business owners embraced the dirtiness and grittiness, turning it into a chance to celebrate the spirit of living and survival.  People decorated their shrimp boots and came out for Second Saturday.  The soiree went on.  

Eventually, the streets were repaired, and downtown Bay St. Louis returned to something that seemed more or less normal. There was no more mud, no more shrimp boots.

​Moynan saw the void left by the old mudfest. “I owned a gallery at the time, and I represented a lot of potters,” she said.  Potters, being “mudslingers,” could provide the “mud” part of a new mudfest. “I got with the potters and said, ‘Let’s make bowls and sell soup with the bowls,’” Moynan said. 

It was a chance for the Bay’s restaurant and business owners, herself included, to show off some of their best recipes, and the town to show that, despite the destruction of those years, it was still alive and kicking. Mudfest, like Bay St. Louis, experienced a rebirth. 

That first year, Moynan gathered a team of six potters to make 280 bowls and enlisted a host of local businesses to serve soup. They set up shop under a tent at the corner of Main and 2nd Streets. The Mudfest’s entire stock sold out in the first hour. It seems that Bay St. Louis residents were hungry for such an event.

​Every year since, SOUPer Mudfest has grown. In 2018, Moynan says that 8 to 10 potters will create more than 800 bowls and attendees will be treated to soups from 30 local businesses. In the past, tomato basil, white bean osso buco, corn and crab bisque, and the Southern staple gumbo have all been on the menu, but Moynan said, “You have no idea what you’re in for this year. It’s always something cool and interesting.”  

SOUPer Mudfest continues to be a chance for visitors and community members to “see how fantastic our town is,” Moynan said. The $25 fee doesn’t just buy a bowl or soup. The money, split among the potters, Old Town Merchants’ Association, Ruth's Roots Blessing Box, and the Hancock County Tourism board, goes to maintaining the indomitable, Bohemian spirit that makes Bay St. Louis great. 

This SOUPer Mudfest kicks off Saturday, March 9 2024, at 2 pm, near the corner of Main and Second Streets. Line up early for the best selection of bowls! If you join in, Moynan said, “You might find a new artist you fall in love with.”

​Or a business. Or a whole town. 

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