Laissez les bon temps rouler — and the good times did roll on Saturday during Vicksburg’s 15th Annual Mardi Gras Parade. Vicksburg Main Street Director Kim Hopkins said the crowd was bigger than it’s been in a long time, and it was a stellar year for parade participants.

“I think we ended up with 42 or 43 entrants,” she said. “All of the krewes were just so much fun this year. They all were very high-spirited and had a great attitude.”

Once again, Danny Hearn Trucking won best in show.

Other awards were best business, Sheffield Rentals; best civic club, Elk’s Club; best nonprofit, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; most original, Peter Hall; best throw, Robyn Lea State Farm; and most enthusiastic, Vicksburg YMCA.

Following the parade an estimated 2,500 people attended the fifth annual Carnaval de Mardi Gras and Gumbo Cook-off, which was held on Crawford Street between Cherry and Adams streets and sponsored by the Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation.

“It was great,” said Nancy Bell, the VFHP executive director.

The menu from the 17 entrants was diverse with variations of seafood gumbo, chicken and sausage gumbo and a brew that included catfish, alligator and crawfish.

Winners of the cook-off included Rusty’s, which took first place in seafood gumbo, with Roux Dawgs second and Nobie’s Kids third. S&M Smokers won first in the non-seafood category, with Krewe De Chaos second and Nobie’s third. May & Company won best display and Creek Krewe won people’s choice.

4Mardi Gras continued throughout the weekend during GymSouth’s seventh annual Mardi Gras Classic gymnastic meet. Girls from ages 4 to 18 competed in the three-day event, and the 425 competitors represented gyms from Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi.

GymSouth had 21 girls compete.

GymSouth owner Cherry Robbins said having the meet in Vicksburg is good exposure for gymnastics in Vicksburg, and “It’s just a good thing for Vicksburg all the way around when you have this many families coming in town over a weekend.”

Other positive happenings in Vicksburg this week included:

4B&B Theatres announced Thursday preliminary work will soon begin on a comprehensive remodel of its theater at Vicksburg Mall, 3505 Pemberton Square Blvd., including a bar, reclining seats and a self-serving drink station.

4Warren Central Intermediate sixth-grader Jordan Townes won the 2016 Vicksburg Warren School District Spelling Bee held Thursday at Bowmar Elementary School.

Townes had been to the district spelling bee for the past three years, and placed first runner up last year.

“I haven’t stopped smiling,” Townes said after winning.

Townes said she was given a list of about 475 words to study, and the toughest word she spelled during the competition was mizzle, a verb that means to rain in very fine drops.