No need to go to the beach this weekend because sunny weather, water views and live music can be found on Eagle Lake.

Eagle Lake’s Lake Fest is set for 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday on Eagle Lake Shore Drive on the grounds of the old Cotton Exchange Restaurant.

“It’s just a fun, family day at the lake,” said Linda Banchetti, president of the Eagle Lake Matters association, of the festival that will bring together the Lake and Vicksburg communities.

This is the fourth year the Eagle Lake Matters association has hosted the festival with vendors, games, music and food. Entry to the festival is free but raffle tickets, food and goods including Lake Fest T-shirts will be available for purchase and donations will be welcome.

“It’s growing every year,” said Kelly MacNealy, past president of Eagle Lake Matters.

This year’s festival will host about 30 vendors from all over the state of Mississippi selling yard art, jewelry, handmade furniture, birdhouses, knives, pottery and hair bows.

“That’s the most vendors we’ve ever had,” MacNealy said.

Fun and activities will be supplied for children in the Kids Fest area from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. where there will be an inflatable obstacle course, a bouncy house, a 20-foot inflatable slide, face painting and multiple games like beanbag toss and a balloon dartboard.

“They win tickets and then they can come by and turn in their tickets for different various prizes,” Banchetti said.

The Eagle Lake Fire Department will have their truck and equipment out on display for people to see.

“They also help provide first aid there for us,” MacNealy said.

Volunteers and food vendors alike including Bop’s Frozen Custard will supply gumbo, chicken, hamburgers and hot dogs.

“All of it’s very reasonably priced,” MacNealy said.

The old Cotton Exchange Restaurant parking lot can be found by turning left at the Welcome to Eagle Lake sign and traveling a quarter of a mile down the road.

“There’s lot of shade trees and it’s a great place to have it. The owners of it volunteer their property every year for us to do it on. It’s overlooking the lake,” MacNealy said, adding he recommends people bring their own lawn chairs to relax under the trees and listen to the music. Sometimes, he said people even get up and dance.

“It’s good clean fun,” MacNealy said.

Scheduled performers are Deanna at 10 a.m., Guilt Ridden Troubadour at noon and The Chill at 2 p.m. Guilt Ridden Troubadour is from Charleston, S.C., but the band’s lead singer, Reid Stone, is a Vicksburg native and his parents still live here.

MacNealy said the festival saw a little over 1,000 people last year and he thinks there will be even more people this year.

“Every year it’s gotten bigger and better,” Banchetti said.

Raffle tickets will be available for purchase for a Benelli shotgun, a Parker crossbow and a $200 gift certificate to Hobie’s Outdoor Sports. The money raised goes to the Eagle Lake Matters association to fund several projects throughout the Eagle Lake area including the Adopt-a-Highway program, the July fourth boat parade, sponsoring neighborhood block parties, paying children to pickup trash, hosting informational meetings, installing security cameras and an Eagle Lake sign and re-landscaping the intersection of Mississippi 465 and Eagle Lake Shore Drive.

Limited vendor space is available. For more information on the event, visit www.eaglelakematters.com or call 601-209-7503.