VIDALIA — The 19th annual Jim Bowie Festival will be Friday and Saturday at the Riverview RV Park and Resort.

The event takes its name from the legendary inventor of the Bowie knife, who was injured in a knife fight on a sandbar in the Mississippi River near Vidalia.

The gates will open at 5 p.m.

Following at 6 p.m. will be the Little Miss Bowie Pageant, a beauty pagent for young girls.

Contestants in the pagent can be from age newborn through seven, said Chamber Executive Director Kathy Nunnery.

Friday night’s events will also include the Backyard Barbecue contest for amatuers and karaoke.

Saturday the festival will begin in earnest with the Louisiana State Barbecue contest.

Thirteen teams have already signed up for the Saturday contest, a Memphis in May sanctioned event meant to challenge professional cooks in three barbecue categories: shoulder, whole hog and ribs.

Vendors will also be present to sale their wares.

Entertainment will include Ben and Gerald, the Pentecostals of the Miss-Lou Choral Group, Backroads, Kenny Bill Stenson and Wayne Toups and The ZydeCajun Band.

At 1 p.m. will be a reenactment of the famous duel that left Jim Bowie injured, and this year the reenactment will be done by professionals, Nunnery said.

“All that these people do is travel around the country doing reenactments,” she said. “It should be a pretty good reenactment.”

The D.A.R.E. fishing tournament, which will also take place this weekend, will have its weigh-in at the festival at 11 a.m.

The final event of the festival will be “Rockin’ on the River,” the Vidalia Women’s Club street dance featuring Easy Eddie and the PartyRockers.