VIDALIA — What began as matter of convenience has turned into a longstanding tradition at Vidalia High School.

Saturday night, the Vikings will host their annual jamboree, something they have been doing since the early 1970s.

“When I first started here, Sicily Island would go to Shreveport to play their jamboree and Block and us would go to Tallulah,” Vidalia coach Dee Faircloth said. “I said it was stupid for us to travel all over the world to play a jamboree when we’re just 26 miles apart. So we started a jamboree ourselves and have since added more teams to it.”

This year’s jamboree features six teams, including Block, Ferriday and Vidalia.

Block will play Tensas Parish in the first game at 6 p.m. while Ferriday will play Madison Parish at about 7:15.

Vidalia will take on Delhi Charter at about 8:30 in the final game of the night.

“It should be some good matchups,” Faircloth said. “Block and Delhi Charter were semifinalists last year in Class 1A, and Ferriday is always good. I think it will be worth the $5 to see a game and a half.”

Faircloth said the jamboree used to be on a Friday night, but the school discovered that it could draw a better crowd if it was moved to Saturday.

“One year a hurricane hit on Wednesday and soaked our field,” Faircloth said. “So we moved the jamboree back to Saturday night to make sure the field was dry. Our crowd tripled from what it was normally. So we kept it on Saturday night. It’s the only game in town then. College football hasn’t started yet and the other high schools play on Friday. It’s something fun to do on a Saturday night.”

In addition to it being an enjoyable time for fans, the jamboree will be an important measuring stick for the teams as they prepare for next Friday’s season-openers.

“We missed our scrimmage last week because of lightning, so we’re behind,” Faircloth said. “You don’t want to start the season without a scrimmage or a jamboree because it will look like a Chinese fire drill out there.”

Ferriday coach Freddie Harrison said jamborees are like dress rehearsals for the season.

“We use it to prepare and fine-tune everything we need to fine-tune, and see what we need to see before our first game,” Harrison said. “Make sure everyone is in the game. We want to set a game tempo and go in there and work out any kinks that we have.”