The orange cones come out on US 90 as Black spring break events move to Biloxi bar
The orange cones return to U.S. 90 in Biloxi this weekend for Summer Beach Fest, although nobody has a count of how many people might be coming to the Mississippi Coast for the events.
“Although some of the events linked to Black Beach Festival this weekend have been canceled, the event has not,” Biloxi Council President Paul Tisdale said in his weekly newsletter.
The Gucci Mane concert scheduled for Aug. 28 at the Coast Coliseum is postponed, said Derrian Burns, one of the promoters of Biloxi Black Beach Weekend.
Most of the other events are moved to Club Zodiac on Caillavet Street in East Biloxi, he said.
People will also gather on any of the beaches, he said, but he’s not sure what to expect with traffic.
“COVID is affecting things in ways we could never have imagined,” Burns said.
The traffic plan
The orange cones will be placed on U.S. 90 Friday morning beginning at about 2:30 a.m., Tisdale said. He distributed neighborhood passes so residents who live off Beach Boulevard can get to their homes if traffic gets heavy and the orange cones are used.
The road from near the Biloxi Lighthouse to Cowan Road, just west of the Biloxi/Gulfport line, will remain two lanes in each direction unless traffic backs up so that emergency vehicles can’t get through.
Then the cones can be used to restrict traffic to one lane each way and keep the left lane open on each side for ambulances, police and fire vehicles.
Coast Transit will run a modified schedule for the weekend because of the expected traffic. On Friday, Beachcomber will end service at 5 p.m. at Edgewater Mall. There will be no Beachcomber service on Saturday and the line doesn’t run on Sunday.
Spring Break at summer’s end
Black spring break events on the Coast were canceled in 2020 during the coronavirus shutdown.
They were scheduled to return in April, but cases were still high and Burns said they moved them to the last weekend in August to be safe.
“All of us thought we were moving out of the pandemic,” he said.
Another promoter did hold the Black Spring Break event on the Biloxi beach in April that didn’t draw the big crowds that are typical.
With the delta variant pushing cases to a record high in South Mississippi, some people say they’ll be sitting this one out in August while others on social media say they’ll be joining the party.
While Mississippi and Biloxi don’t have mask orders, Burns said masks are encouraged to protect those who attend the events Aug. 26-29.
