HANCEVILLE — A new music festival will put the spotlight on Hanceville’s downtown starting next spring, while commemorating the community’s resilience in the face of past adversity.

Hanceville’s city council recently approved a street use request for the “Welcome Back Hanceville!” music festival, a one-day event that organizers hope will be the first of many more in years to come.

Scheduled for April 27 of next year, the event coincides with the 2011 date when tornadoes and strong storms left Hanceville and other parts of Cullman County in tatters. Mayor Kenneth Nail said the festival would mark the first wide-scale effort in the city to celebrate residents’ rebuilding efforts.

“We’re going to make it a day of celebration, reminding us that our people made it through the storm,” Nail said. “I know it’s been several years ago since we all went through that, but we haven’t really had anything, before now to commemorate what we all went through.”

Already set to headline the festival is Irlene Mandrell, the youngest sibling in country music’s famous Mandrell Sisters family act. Joining her will be former Confederate Railroad member Cody McCarver, as well as Vicki Lynn Maxwell and other yet-to-be-confirmed artists.

Hanceville resident Nolan Bradford, who’s heading up the organizing effort for the show, told The Times the plan is to seek a special event license from the city that will permit the sale of alcohol within a defined entertainment district area on festival day.

Nail said the city hasn’t yet received such a request, although it has approved one other request for a special event license in the past.

“I personally would probably be okay with it for a family event like this,” he said. “There would be a concern, up front, with figuring out how to put up temporary fencing or other boundary that would help define the enclosed district, but it’s a matter that would come before the city council once it had first been approved by our standing alcohol committee.

“We had a special event several years ago where we permitted alcohol sales, and it went well. It was a cornhole tournament down at the civic center, and there were no problems with that event.”

For city leaders, an all-ages music festival could be the next step in promoting Hanceville’s gradual downtown renaissance. “We think it’s part of the road we’ve been going down for a couple of years now, to get some life back into our downtown,” Nail explained. “It gets people thinking about our downtown, which is something our local business owners and property owners really have been pushing. There’s no doubt that there’s more life coming to downtown than we’ve seen in a long time.”

The next major event that will flood the city’s streets with pedestrians will be Oct. 20, when the Mud Creek Arts and Crafts Festival again puts the spotlight on Hanceville’s downtown. The following week, officials expect thousands of people to turn out for Fall Fest, highlighted by the popular Halloween-themed trunk-or-treat outing, which is set to take place this year on Oct. 28.