It’s Finally Friday! Kick off the weekend at Peresich Park

Main Street’s monthly downtown soiree — Finally Friday! — takes place this afternoon from 4 to 8 at the Margaret Tremmel Peresich Park.

Among the attractions at the free event will be music by Casual Karate, a drawing for a $100 gift certificate to a downtown business, and sales of the 2012 Christmas ornament (depicting The Redding House) as well as discounted sales on previous ornaments.

To see a flier about Finally Friday, click here.

Meet police, firefighters in free event Saturday

You’ll have a chance to see some of the millions of dollars worth of police and fire hardware Saturday during the city’s annual Community Festival Against Crime.

More importantly, says Biloxi Police Chief John Miller, it’s a chance for residents to meet police officers and firefighters, and learn what to do to keep your community and property safe. Information about protecting your property from storms and flooding also be will offered.

The free event takes place on the Town Green from noon to 4 p.m. Free hamburgers, hot dogs and soft drinks will be served.

“We’ll have plenty of activities for children and the whole family,” Miller said, “and there will be demonstrations by the canine units and bomb squads. It’s going to be a great time and educational time, so we hope people will turn out.”

To see a flyer about the event, click here.


Weekend preview: Anderson arts and crafts and more

Of course, the highlight of the weekend is expected to be the Peter Anderson Arts and Crafts Festival, which will attract tens of thousands of visitors to downtown Ocean Springs.

And this year, during the fest, you can see the Biloxi High School Orchestra, which will partner with the Mary C. O’Keefe’s Youth Symphony to present a lawn concert extravaganza at the Mary C. O’Keefe Cultural Center on Saturday at 10 a.m.

The free concert will begin with the “Star Spangled Banner” with Biloxi High School’s soprano soloist Morgan Shavers.

For a look at the overall weekend entertainment lineup, click here.

News and notes

See the trees: Community groups, businesses and individuals began delivering their decorated Christmas trees to Beauvoir this week for next week’s Festival of Trees, which will usher in Christmas at Beauvoir. For at look at some of the trees — which will be presented in a silent auction during a gala Thursday — click here.

Beating up Butch: Butch Oustalet, arguably the best-known car dealer in south Mississippi, helped raise tens of thousands of dollars for Biloxi First this week. To see photographs from the annual roast, which raises money to support classroom projects in Biloxi Public Schools,
click here.

Survey says: The city needs your input to help update its Hazard Mitigation Plan. Take a minute or two to answer a 10-question, anonymous survey online. You can do it now by clicking here.