The Mississippi Gulf Coast Blues and Heritage Festival, one of the longest running blues festivals in the Deep South, was founded in 1991 by the Mississippi Gulf Coast Blues Commission, established by Winston Smith and a core group of blues supporters from the African American community. After Smith, a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy assigned to Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, found there was no blues festival on the coast, he and the commission's charter members pledged their own funds to co-sponsor the first festival with the Biloxi Coliseum. Held first at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, later for seven years there, and then at the Jackson County Fairgrounds beginning in 1998, the festival featured southern soul, blues, zydeco, gospel, internationally renowned touring acts, local Gulf Coast performers, Louisiana zydeco bands, church choirs, and gospel groups. Its stated mission was to hold an annual festival every September, share proceeds with youth organizations in Mississippi's coastal counties, and promote the blues as an art form that originated in Mississippi and other southern states. Under the leadership of Addie Brent, Phyllis Owens, Isiah Edwards, Sam Walley, Louis Maxey, Finas Belk, Maggie Richardson, and their colleagues, the festival brought a wide range of performers to the coast. Among the blues and soul entertainers who appeared were Johnnie Taylor, the Average White Band, Koko Taylor, Millie Jackson, Clarence Carter, Mel Waiters, Bobby Bland, Latimore, Sir Charles Jones, Marvin Sease, Bobby Rush, Denise LaSalle, Willie Clayton, O.B. Buchana, Little Milton, Ms. Jody, Theodis Ealey, Sam Myers, and Nathaniel Kimble, along with Mississippi Gulf Coast performers such as Keith "Chicken Daddy" Hunter and Hot Wings, Sue Venable and DeVille, Libby Rae Watson, the Pat Murphy Band, Jerry Fisher and the Music Company, Joe Salmon, the 4 Real Show and Band, and Unckle Eddie, as well as performers from Mobile and New Orleans. The festival held special ceremonies honoring Charles Fairley, Margie Joseph, Rip Daniels, and longtime commission member Victoria Webb, and the commission also sponsored an annual Mardi Gras carnival ball, fundraising concerts, and a musical instrument contest for students. The festival was cancelled only in 2005 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.