Whether for love of gumbo and bluegrass or just dislike of dangerous fires, the Vidalia Fire Department is offering citizens a chance to show them support.

The department’s annual Vittles and Fiddles festival, now in its fourth year, features bluegrass performances and a gumbo cook-off. All proceeds go into a fund for the department’s new training facility on Logan Sewell Road.

Slated to perform are the L & M Band, McCall Creek, Southland, Flatland Brush and the Harrigill Family.

The festival opens at 6 p.m. Friday night with no cover charge, and anyone who sings or plays bluegrass or gospel music is welcome to come and perform during the jam session, Vidalia Fire Chief Jack Langston said.

Re-opening at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, entrance into the festival will cost $5. Festivities will continue until 11 p.m. Saturday night.

“There will be music continuously from 8:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., with a brief intermission around 6 p.m.,” Langston said.

The gumbo cook-off will begin at 7 a.m. Saturday, before the festival even opens, Langston said.

Judging will be at noon.

“I choose five judges from the RV park,” Langston said. “They might not even know about gumbo.

“They’re all out-of-towners so that everything will be impartial.”

Construction on the training facility for which the festival raises funds has already begun, Langston said.

“This year we finally got enough funds to get started,” he said.

Currently, the facility is fenced in, a road has been built in it and a waterline has been laid so that a fire hydrant may be installed.

Next month, they hope to get forms laid for a burn building where firemen will practice using fire hoses to put out live fires, Langston said.

“Right now, we do all of our training here at the Vidalia Fire Station,” he said. “There’s some that we can do here, but as far as live fire training is concerned, we have to send our guys off to the facility at LSU.”

Along with the burn building, the facility will have a four-story drill tower and a maze trailer.

“The maze trailer will be blacked-out and will help train in search and rescue,” Langston said.

The facility will be built in stages as the department receives the funds to build it, Langston said.