VIDALIA — A lot of things will be for sale at the Jim Bowie Festival this weekend, but beer will not be one of them.

Hosted by the Vidalia Chamber of Commerce, the festival committee wanted to set up a booth to sell draft beer at the festival.

“We want to provide a festival atmosphere and be able to sell a beer to someone who is of age and wants to have one,” Chamber President Sam Jones said.

The committee was prohibited from providing the beer part of that equation, however, by a 2004 ordinance that banned the sale of alcohol at any festival within the city limits.

One proposed solution was to place the booth outside of the city limits — except there is a parish ordinance in place that bans anyone from peddling within 1,000 feet of the city limits.

The chamber approached the police jury about temporarily lifting that ordinance for the festival, but because the jury is currently facing a legal dispute about the ordinance, they advised the chamber to go to the district attorney’s office to try to get an injunction. The legal matter the jury is currently involved in involves a fireworks stand.

“Because they are in court for that same ordinance, making an exception for us would not be the right thing to do,” Jones said.

Aside from seeking an injunction from the district attorney’s office, the chamber could have asked the city to rescind the ordinance, but in the end the festival organizers ran out of time to find a beer-selling solution.

“It’s too late in the game to do that now,” Jones said.

The city ordinance was passed after the 2003 Bowie festival, when a beer booth was erected.

“We had some groups, churches and other people, who were opposed to the sale of alcohol at the festival,” Mayor Hyram Copeland said, and at the alderman meeting where the ordinance was passed, “the (council) chamber was completely full.”

In 2007, beer was sold at the festival by a private vendor.

“We had a private business that was supposed to get a catering license, but they did not get the correct license and was quickly caught by the opponents of beer sales, and he was fined,” Jones said.

Regardless of beer sales, both Copeland and Jones said they hope to see as many people as possible turn out for the event.

The beer-free festival kicks off tonight.

The Little Miss Bowie Pagent starts at 6:30 p.m., and the “Anything Butt” contest judging will be from 6 to 9 p.m.

During the Anything Butt contest, entrants are allowed to cook anything but pork, as long as they cook it on a grill.

“Last year, one guy actually baked a peach cobbler,” Jones said.

Saturday’s events include live entertainment, the state championship barbecue cook-off and approximately 60 small vendors.