Mardi Gras, music, theater and more await your weekend

The weekend’s chockfull of special events. Among your offerings are Mardi Gras parades in Biloxi, Long Beach, Bay St. Louis; community theater productions at Biloxi Little Theater, Center Stage and Biloxi Junior High School; and concerts by Willie Nelson, Kansas, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Three Dog Night.

And with summertime just around the corner, you can preview this year’s selection of boats and RVs at this weekend’s huge Biloxi Boat and RV Show at the Coast Coliseum. For their admission fee, visitors can also see a number of shows, including fetch-and-fish dog demonstrations, and fish in a trout pond.

This weekend’s Mardi Gras parade in Biloxi is sponsored by the Second Liners carnival group. The 1 p.m. procession will begin at the site of Nichols Elementary School, travel west on Division Street, south on Main, west on Esters, south on Lameuse, east on MLK, and north on Main, before turning east on Esters. The parade will end at Doris C. Busch Park, where a Mardi Gras block party will be held with food and games.

For details on these events and more – such as the Neptune carnival ball at the Biloxi Civic Center and the Biloxi Blues Festival at the Coast Coliseum, click here.

Webcasting: Special State of the City edition

The complete 26-minute video of Mayor A.J. Holloway’s State of the City address is now available on the city’s web site, where you can also see photos from the event and complete text of his address. The State of the City package serves as a special edition of this week’s City Desk webcast. To see the mayor’s presentation, click here.

Speaking of the state of Biloxi: WLOX-TV’s Doug Walker and David Elliott ask questions about the mayor’s State of the City address and Biloxi issues in general during a spirited segment of “WLOX News This Week,” airing Saturday evening at 6 with an encore Sunday morning at 6:30.

News and notes

More blighted properties: The City Council’s agenda includes a measure that could lead to blight removal procedures against nine sites, including the Harrah’s site and the Santa Maria Del Mar site on Beach Boulevard, as well as locations on Caillavet Street, Veterans Avenue and Beauvoir Road. To see the complete agenda and supporting documents, click here.

Traffic update: To see the latest on a half-dozen projects and the impact they are having on traffic, click here.