Lameuse Street is the place to be this weekend

Lameuse Street, which travels through the heart of downtown Biloxi, will be a bevy of activity at its north and south ends this weekend.

Kicking off the day at 9:30 a.m. at Gorenflo Elementary School, at the north end of Lameuse, will be the second annual speed stack championship, an event that features the Top 10 stackers — five boys and five girls — from Biloxi elementary schools.

Those planning to view the competition should be in the Gorenflo gym before 9:30. The competition should end before noon. For a video example of what you can expect to see courtesy of YouTube, click here.

Meantime, on the Town Green, as many as 5,000 spectators are expected to witness the grilling skills of nearly two dozen backyard gourmets, who will be competing for $3,000 in the annual Grillin’ on the Green.

The daylong event, sponsored by Main Street and supported by the City of Biloxi, will carry no admission fee and will offer free live entertainment (Rhythm ‘n’ Rain, Fort Bayou Slim, and Brian Power vs. The World), a huge children’s playground ($5 admission fee), arts and crafts vendors, and, of course, the best barbecue you’ll find anywhere.

To see a poster about the event, click here.

And, finally, at 2 p.m., the Hibernia Marching Society’s annual St. Patrick’s parade makes its way through downtown Biloxi. The parade begins at the Biloxi Yacht Club, travels west on Beach Boulevard, turning north on Lameuse Street and travels around MLK Boulevard before ending near the south end of Reynoir Street, a blarney stone’s toss from Mary Mahoney’s.

The Hibernia Marching Society, incidentally, introduced this year’s grand marshal to the public during a Biloxi City Council meeting the other day. To see images from the meeting, click here.

Also on tap this weekend: To see the complete lineup of weekend activities — Whoopi Goldberg at the IP, Craig Ferguson at the Beau, George Thorogood & The Destroyers at the Hard Rock, plus the Biloxi Boat & RV Show at the Coliseum — click here.

News and notes

Let there be light: City contractors next week will begin nearly a million dollars worth of lighting projects on major thoroughfares. Workers today were installing signage on the four initial phases of the job: Beach Boulevard from Iberville to Porter and from Oak to Myrtle, Bayview from Caillavet to Main, and along the walkway under the I-110. Details on the project next week.

Ohr funding: The Biloxi City Council will have two public meetings on Tuesday: a 10:30 morning meeting to discuss a management agreement and funding for the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art, and a 1:30 afternoon meeting where Ohr funding is on the agenda, with several other issues. To see the complete agenda and available resolutions, click here.