Double Decker Arts Festival draws 111,700 to Oxford weekend event

A free weekend on Oxford’s historic downtown Square drew 111,700 visitors to the 29th Annual Double Decker Arts Festival, a turnout that pushed the city’s biggest spring event well beyond a routine arts gathering and into a major test of downtown capacity.

Visit Oxford executive director Kinney Ferris said the festival welcomed 111,700 people to the Square over the April 24-25 event. That figure stands well above Visit Oxford’s own current description of Double Decker as a 65,000-plus draw, and it falls at the top end of the crowd range city planning documents used as Oxford prepared for the weekend. For Lafayette County, the number points to more than a festival success story. It means heavier demand for hotels, packed restaurants around the Square, more cars competing for limited parking, and a bigger workload for police, transit staff and city crews who had to keep traffic moving and downtown clean.

The festival’s scale also shows how deeply Double Decker is woven into Oxford’s civic identity. The event was presented by the University of Mississippi Museum and supported by Ole Miss Athletics, linking the festival to two of the city’s most visible institutions. The museum, established in Oxford in 1939, holds the largest collection of fine arts and artifacts at an academic museum in Mississippi. The University of Mississippi ceramics program also sends its Mud Daubers student group to show work at Double Decker, another sign that the festival is more than a weekend draw. It is a recurring showcase for campus and community alike.

Double Decker’s growth is easier to see when set against its own history. Visit Oxford says the event was inspired by a double-decker bus Oxford imported from England in 1994. It began with an old pickup truck bed serving as a stage and only a handful of art and food vendors. Today, the festival features more than 100 art booths, more than 20 local food vendors and live music anchored by acts such as Penelope Road, The War and Treaty and Shane Smith and the Saints on Friday, April 24. Saturday brought the Double Decker Spring Run, a kid zone and art booths across the Square.

The logistics matched the scale. Visit Oxford’s festival FAQ says pets were not allowed, drones were prohibited and parking around the Square was extremely limited, with shuttle service recommended. Those are the practical details that matter when a free event draws a crowd this large. For Oxford, the latest turnout suggests Double Decker remains one of the city’s strongest destination events, while also making clear that growth now comes with real pressure on downtown streets, public safety and local infrastructure.