Mississippi’s New York Central Park Picnic is over, for good

Published 10:35 am Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Mississippi’s popular picnic in New York’s Central Park is over, for good.

The Mississippi picnic in New York was held in June each year for several decades, celebrating the Magnolia state including its food and music. The picnic was canceled in 2016 after the Mississippi legislature passed House Bill 1523, that would have allowed for LGBT discrimination if a U.S. court hadn’t stepped in.

Now, the New York Mississippi Society that sponsored the picnic annually said several reasons have led to the event’s long-term cancellation.

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“The 36 years of the Mississippi Picnics has been wonderful and a positive thing for all those involved but with the competition of funding sources and the rising costs and complexity of putting this event together, The New York Society regrets to announce that there are no plans for any future picnics,” the society wrote on its website this week.

The first picnic was held in 1980 and some 500 people attended, leading to the formation of the New York Mississippi Society.

Its mission was “to preserve the culture and heritage of Mississippi by supporting and promoting artists, authors, musicians and culinary artists.”