NATCHEZ — If Darby Short wasn’t so busy this weekend, the downtown store owner said she would hug each and every volunteer of the Great Mississippi River Balloon Race.

The third weekend of October is balloon race weekend for most Natchez residents. For local store owners like Darby, the weekend is the next best thing to Black Friday, the traditional first day of the Christmas shopping season.

“It’s huge, huge,” Darby’s husband Dennis said. “This is a very important weekend for Natchez retailers.”

Darby remembers the first few years of the balloon race in its infancy.

“Thirty years later, the balloon race has grown from being a good weekend to now it is something you have to start planning for in January,” she said.

Friday afternoon Dennis Short was busy making the store’s famous fudge. Unlike a normal weekend, he had both of his fudge kettles working non-stop making flavors from chocolate pecan to pumpkin. The kettles will be in service making hundreds of pounds of fudge to keep the counter filled with the sweet conconcotions.

“We make about three times as much fudge during the balloon race than we do on a normal weekend,” Darby said.

From its inception, the Great Mississippi River Balloon Race has been focused on bolstering businesses in downtown.

“The goal has always been to bring business downtown,” Historic Natchez Foundation Executive Director and balloon race committee member Mimi Miller said.

The race was created 31 years ago in 1986 amid an oil and gas bust, Miller said.

Local businessmen James Biglane, Cappy Stahlman and Ron Riches created the race, and the first event was at the Natchez Mall.

Since then, the race has been hosted in the Bicentennial Gardens on the grounds of Rosalie, the historic house owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

The location on the bluff has been very important to the balloon race, Miller said.

“The reason we do it is because of downtown,” Miller said.

After three decades, local retailers say the weekend has grown every year.

“Traditionally, it has always been a good year for us,” Turning Pages Books & More owner Mary Emrick said.

When the balloon race started, Emrick owned a bookstore on Washington Street, just a few blocks from the festival entrance. Her store is now on Franklin Street.

“It was a good weekend then, but it is even more so now that the balloon race has grown so much,” Emrick said.

Miller said the balloon race committee is proud of what has been accomplished in the past three decades.

Recent tax collections for 2015 show October as the month that produced the most hotel tax dollars for the year, Miller said.

Darby says the race has been an economic lift for everyone. This year, she hired people to help her with a special rug sale and had to find a place for them to stay because all of the hotels were full.

“Everyone benefits — hotels, restaurants, gas stations and retailers,” Darby said. “Every time we see a volunteer, we should give them a hug.”