Name change

By now it has been well publicized that the Main Street Festival has changed its name to the Loblolly Festival. Why Loblolly you might ask?
First, here's the meaning of the word:

lob·lol·ly
1. One of several pines native to the southeastern United States.
2. A low, wet place

The name loblolly has become associated with several varieties of trees, all of which favor wet bottomlands in the Gulf and South Atlantic states.

Before it became the beautiful City of Laurel, this area was a low, wet place. This was the perfect climate and setting to grow one of our greatest resources, the yellow pine timber that helped fund the development of Laurel through its milling. We no longer have the sawmill, but the legacy that it left is certainly worth celebrating at the annual Loblolly Festival in the same site where the old mill once stood-- Downtown.