Longtime foodie Elizabeth Williams had little more than a vision back in 2019 when she and others at The Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience began planning what would become the Sipp & Savor food and drink festival.

 

Initial brainstorming produced a few questionable notions, she concedes, including a “sip and supper” possible event title. Then the COVID epidemic derailed the first planned Sipp & Savor in the spring of 2020.

 

“The world shut down 13 days before the festival was supposed to happen,” she said.

 

But it’s been one delicious hit after another since then, with a string of four Sipp & Savor events between 2021 and 2024, and with a “bigger and better” edition scheduled for the late afternoon and evening of April 12, anniversary No. 5 has arrived.

 

This yearly event takes over the MAX campus and blocks of adjacent Front Street, celebrating the South’s culinary arts. Food experts and media observers from near and far take notice, strengthening Meridian’s image as a cultural center.

 

“I’m proud of our little Sipp & Savor for sure,” said Williams, 33, speaking modestly as the festival’s producer. Thousands from across the region travel to sample specialty dishes and drinks, and “I have several chefs that talk about wanting to move to Meridian.”

 

The 2021 festival, which had celebrity chef and Jackson native Cat Cora as its headliner, featured roughly 15 chefs and beverage vendors and attracted an estimated 1,000 attendees. Last year, attendance topped 2,700, with 34 chefs and 26 other vendors.

 

This year, as the museum seeks the finest experience for ticket-buyers and sponsors, attendance will be capped at 3,000, with an expected 48 chefs and two dozen vendors serving and engaging the crowd. Mitchell Distributing is the signature sponsor.

 

Notable chefs featured this year include headliner Vishwesh Bhatt, a James Beard Award winner from Oxford’s Snackbar eatery; Brandon Cain, from Saws BBQ in Birmingham; and Sophina Uong from the “tropical roadhouse” New Orleans restaurant Mister Mao. (For festival details, go to sippandsavor.com.)

 

Sipp & Savor is a vital fundraiser for the nonprofit’s educational programs; it requires year-round planning and enormous effort early in the year. The MAX’s executive leadership and other staff, its board and a devoted committee with volunteers such as Caroline Rush are essential to pulling it off. But from the start, Williams has been at the center, navigating chef networks and logistical hurdles, ironing out ticketing bugs, courting donors.

 

MAX board member Barbara Thomas noted that Williams is able to “bring a lot of different people and personalities together to make it a success. Beyond that, she works hard.”

 

A Birmingham-area native, Williams earned a studio art degree at the University of Alabama. She and husband David, who works in the administration of East Mississippi Community College, first met when the two were working in Birmingham restaurants. Williams joined The MAX’s staff in March 2018, weeks before the museum opened, in an adult education role. She soon became fascinated with recipes and writings in cookbooks the Meridian Star published many years ago, and with refining the concept of a food festival.

 

While toil and diplomacy were required in building The MAX’s signature event, there have been lots of enjoyable moments too. One memorable episode came when The MAX added a Walk of Fame sidewalk star in honor of Cat Cora in 2021.

 

“We had a big (brass) band as our band that year. We did a second-line from the stage to Cat’s star, and then we came down Front Street and went in the front doors of The MAX,” Williams said. “When we hit that (indoor) rotunda, it was so loud, and Cat was dancing … people were, like, throwing chicken nuggets in each other’s mouths. I think that was one of the most dramatic moments that we’ve had.”