In 1995, Downtown Columbia Business & Professional Association conceived the Fall Festival with the goal of bringing a higher awareness of downtown to the community. Over the years the festival has become an anticipated annual event for the community. 

In 2004, the association decided it was time for the event to step up a notch. To do this, the Saturday night entertainment went from local entertainers to a top recording group from the past, The Drifters. Attendance to the two day festival soared to approximately five thousand.  
With the success of the 2004 festival and looking forward to Columbia’s projected growth of the near future, the association moved the festival to the next level in 2005. The festival was reborn as the Southern Fried Festival with big name entertainment, a Cook-off Challenge, Kid Zone and much more. The goal was to draw not only the local community to downtown Columbia, but also people from all of Middle Tennessee. 

The Southern Fried Festival continues to grow bigger and better each year. The two main attractions continue to be top notch entertainment and scrumptious foods.