Festival time has come.

With the first activities of the 34th annual Ole Brook Festivalkicking off Friday night, vendors booked for this year’s festivalbegan arriving as soon as Wednesday night to set up shop inRailroad Park.

The vendors, which the Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber ofCommerce lists at a record number of approximately 250, arepreparing to serve an expected 6,000 to 8,000 festival visitors inwhat is expected to be the largest Ole Brook ever.

And with only a few hours remaining before festival time andmore than 30 volunteers on hand, the chamber – and the rest ofSouthwest Mississippi – is ready.

“All systems are go,” said Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber ofCommerce Executive Vice President Cliff Brumfield. “All the boothspaces have been sold, the weather looks great and we’re ready tomake the 34th Old Brook Festival the best ever.”

Ole Brook Committee Chairman Jeff Doremus said the major onrushof vendors will begin Friday at 5 p.m. and last until around 11p.m.

Doremus and his platoon of about 30 Ole Brook volunteers – whowent through a last-minute training session Thursday – will be onguard in Railroad Park all night Friday to place the vendorsaccording to a tight traffic control plan.

“The main traffic we’re concerned with is vendor traffic comingin – that’s where most of the congestion happens,” he said. “It’sblocked off downtown, and the key is getting them coming intocertain entrances and going out the same entrances so the flow oftraffic is going in one direction.”

Chamber program director Kay Burton said solid preparation -especially for the vendors – has been the chamber’s toppriority

“I have called every single food vendor and lined up a time forthem to set up,” Burton said. “You have to bring them in one at atime – you can’t parallel park a 20-foot trailer.”

While the vendors are in town, they will need several utilityhookups to function. Burton said Entergy’s Anthony Bell assisted inpreparing downtown’s electrical hookups, of which more than 80 wererepaired or replaced. Burton said electrical supply has causedminor problems in past festivals, but not this time.

“We have done a much better job this year of making sure all theoutlets are working correctly,” she said.

Even as the meticulous job of placing the many vendors isongoing Friday night, the festival will have already begun.

The festival kicks off Friday at 6 p.m. with an installment of aMid South Talent Show.

Burton said more than 30 acts are scheduled to compete in theshow, with the winners in each of the divisions to receive cashprizes provided by the Bank of Brookhaven. The five divisions arecomposed of acts performing in groups and one-man performancesfeaturing Broadway/classical music, Christian/gospel, country andpopular.

The overall winner will advance to the Mid South Fair YouthTalent Contest in Memphis, Tenn. Last year, Burton said fourBrookhaven contestants placed in the Mid South finals.

Local musicians Chad and Tammy Simmons, Tyler Bridge and VidaliaSanders will judge the talent show, which is expected to last untilat least 8:30 p.m. and possibly longer.

The meat of the festival begins Saturday at 9 a.m. and lastsinto the night. Aside from the plethora of food vendors and artsand crafts merchants – as well as several sales and specials fromdowntown businesses close to the action – the festival will haveplenty of activities for children as well, including inflatableplay pens, Veggie Tales characters and an entire Kids Zone.

At 6:30 p.m. Saturday, the festival’s closer – a free, Christianconcert featuring Big Daddy Weave, Rush of Fools and Jason Gray -will go on and last into the night.

After the concert, the crowd will disperse, the vendors willbegin packing up and leaving and planning for next year’s Ole BrookFestival will begin within weeks.

But Ole Brook isn’t the only show in town this weekend.

The Lincoln County Multi-Purpose Facility is also playing hostto the 2008 Lincoln County Wildlife Expo. The expo begins Friday at5 p.m. and starts again Saturday at 9 a.m.

Facility manager Quinn Jordan said the outdoorsman’sextravaganza will feature more than 50 booths and vendors – withretail booths inside the facility and larger items like ATVs andRVs in the arena – selling items and passing out information oneverything from game calls to outdoor clothing.

Companies like Bardwell Yamaha and Gander Mountain will havebooths, while organizations like the Mississippi State UniversityExtension Service, the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science andlocally-founded Catch-A-Dream will give presentations.

The expo will feature a venison cook-off, a 3-D archerycompetition and a big buck contest.

On top of Ole Brook’s expected 6,000 to 8,000 visitors, Jordanestimated the wildlife expo will draw an additional 2,000 people toLincoln County.

Both events’ organizers have advertised the events extensivelyin a joint effort, and each will have information on the other inan effort to trade visitors throughout the day.

“We’ve advertised from pretty much south of Jackson to theLouisiana state line, and from the Mississippi River to this sideof Hattiesburg,” Jordan said. “With this being our first year back,we don’t really know how many people will show up, but we’veadvertised to around 150,000 people.”

Brumfield said the chamber has received almost 100 calls per daythis week from people as far away as Baton Rogue, La. and Mobile,Ala.

“The phone is buzzing off the wall for information anddirections to the festival,” he said.