Ellington

GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — Organizers say they are not planning to continue the annual picnic that brought Mississippi catfish and blues to New York.

The Jackson Free Press broke the news Tuesday, Jan. 3, after the New York Mississippi Society made the announcement on its website.

The group says for 36 years, the Mississippi picnic "has been wonderful and a positive thing for all those involved."

But, it says with competition for funding and complexity of planning, the society has "no plans for any future picnics."

A woman who answered the society's phone Wednesday confirmed to The Associated Press that the post is legitimate.

The 2016 picnic in Central Park was canceled to protest a Mississippi law that would have allowed people to cite their own religious objections to same-sex marriage to deny a variety of services to same-sex couples.

The Sun Herald also reported the cancellation Jan. 4.