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NATCHEZ — Pilgrimage Garden Club members are hard at work — but having the best of times — preparing for the kick off event of this year’s Spring Pilgrimage, Miss Julia’s Soiree at Longwood.

The PGC’s new Spring Pilgrimage is March 27 through March 30 and April 3 through April 6.

Miss Julia’s Soiree at Longwood is Thursday, March 27, and will offer an evening of traditional southern fare and cocktails, along with entertainment provided by children of Pilgrimage Garden Club members and dancing for all to the tunes of Cha Cha Boo.

“That is Gary Caldwell and Tommy Porter’s band,” said Laura Copeland Tate, chairperson of the event. “Remember Easy Eddie and the Party Rockers? That was Gary Caldwell’s original band. Now they are Cha Cha Boo. They play all kinds of music. They do everything, something for everyone.”

Miss Julia’s Soiree at Longwood starts at 6 p.m. and it is open to all. Tickets are $75 and are available at pilgrimagenatchez.com

“We will have tables under the trees in the front of Longwood and Tom Graning is catering a buffet with all of our southern favorites,” Tate said.

Pilgrimage Garden Club member Kathleen Mackey King will portray Julia Nutt and will greet guests during the event. Pilgrimage Garden Club members’ children will present the Little Maypole. Then, others will perform the Big Maypole, reminiscent of dances once featured in the Natchez Tableaux.

Six teenage couples, also children of garden club members, will perform the Soiree Waltz, and a Camelia Sweetheart and Azalea Sweetheart will be crowned.

“That goes back to a Pilgrimage tradition in Natchez in the 1930s,” she said.

A core committee of 12 PGC members has organized Miss Julia’s Soiree at Longwood. While the Pilgrimage Garden Club’s Spring Pilgrimage season is condensed in days this year, it is chock full of events for tourists and locals to enjoy.

“We are so thrilled to invite the entire Natchez community to Miss Julia’s Soiree at Longwood,” said PGC member Laine Berry. She and her husband, Kevin, have helped redesign the PGC’s Spring Pilgrimage. “This grand event will bring back the traditions and pageantry of days past. This is the culmination of months of hard work recreating the institution of Pilgrimage and the seminal celebration and introduction of this new creation.

Tickets for Miss Julia’s Soiree at Longwood, as well as other Spring Pilgrimage events, can be purchased at pilgrimagenatchez.com.