The Ferris wheel is up and the rest of the carnival rides have been going into place – just in time for the Mississippi Spring Fest and Fair to kick off this afternoon.

“We’re putting the final touches on the fair this morning,” Lincoln Civic Center Director Quinn Jordan said Wednesday around 8:30 a.m. “We have two new rides and the Ring of Fire is back. The doors open at 4:30 with great food and entertainment.” Jordan said the newcomers to the midway are Gravitron-style rides.

The Lincoln County Civic Center has a wide range of activities on the agenda for the May 7-11 event, including a rodeo and a kideo, or kid’s rodeo. The 2014 Spring Fest and Fair is presented by the Bank of Brookhaven and Toyota of Brookhaven.

Rides, games, food and music will be available throughout fair days.

Wednesday is Youth Night at the fair and will include a free concert and worship service with the Tim Winbourne Band, featuring special guest, Christian rap artist K-Zoe at 6:30 p.m. Armbands are $15 and festivities will take place between 4:30-10 p.m. Wednesday’s fair events will be sponsored by Larue’s Drugs of Brookhaven.

Thursday night will feature the Mid-South Talent Contest. Talent show registration is 6 p.m. Deadline to enter is Saturday May 3, and entry forms can be found at the Lincoln County Civic Center. First prize for the competition is $500. Second prize is $200 and third prize is $100. The competition will start at 6:30 p.m. Farm Belt Equipment will sponsor the Thursday talent competition.

The Friday night fair is sponsored by Brookhaven Honda. The evening will feature a “Rough Stock Rodeo” night at 7:30 p.m. Some of the best pro rodeo riders will perform at the rodeo, sponsored by Jeff Wilson Dodge. Friday armbands will cost $20.

The Jeff Wilson Dodge Rough Stock Rodeo also will be presented at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.

The Farm Bureau of Lincoln County will sponsor Saturday’s fair events, which will feature a “Farm Day at the Fair,” with great activities for kids of all age from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. There will be 15 Farm Day stations that provide students 10-minute agricultural activities that include farm animals and agricultural products for youths to view. Some activities include churning butter, making bread, harvesting crops, collecting honey, planting flowers and making Mother’s Day cards. Children can to see a cow being milked, view beehives with fresh honey, a grist mill and a petting zoo, among other activities.

A small educational rodeo (or kideo) will have bulls, bare back and saddle broncs and mutton busting for the kids in the arena at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

In addition, Miss Rodeo America, Paige Nicholson will also be at the fair for Farm Day with Bully, the four-legged mascot for Mississippi State University. Fair participants will be able to take pictures with Nicholson and Bully.

Also on Saturday, at 3 p.m. inside the Multipurpose Building, the Mississippi Spring Fest Beauty Pageant will be held, sponsored by Susan Shoppe.

Saturday armbands will cost $25.

On Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 11, the fair will host a Mother’s Day Gospel and Blues Concert staring Lillian Lilly, Soul Consolators, Expression of Faith, Southern Stars and Grace Community Choir. King’s Daughters Medical Center will sponsor the Mother’s Day special event.

Sunday’s armbands will cost $10. Sunday fair hours will be 1-8 p.m.

The Spring Fest and Fair also will include a local food alley underneath the stall barn with host food vendors, the Loyd Star FFA, Mississippi Ice Cream Factory, Boy Scouts of America Troop 117 and First United Methodist Church (Friday and Saturday during Rodeo).

For more information about the fair, contact Lincoln County Civic Center Director Quinn Jordan at 601-823-9064 or go to the civic center Facebook page or website, lincolnciviccenter.com.