FERRIDAY — After eight months of construction, the new Arcade Theater will open in Ferriday Wednesday.

Secretary of State Jay Dardenne will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 5 p.m. Wednesday at the Arcade, which is located on Louisiana Avenue next to the Delta Music Museum.

“The building is beautiful, both inside and out,” Delta Music Museum Director Judith Bingham said. “We are trying to get it spit-shine clean for Wednesday.”

Country musician and Ferriday native Mickey Gilley will be an honored guest at the event, Bingham said.

The Arcade is something that holds a lot of cultural significance for Ferriday and the Concordia Parish and Adams County areas, Jacques Berry with the secretary of state’s office said.

“We are very pleased to be able to reopen it and have it so expertly restored,” he said.

The Arcade has been fitted with state-of-the-art technology, Berry said.

“After the ribbon-cutting and once they start having events there, I think the citizens are really going to enjoy having this facility in the area,” Berry said.

The original Arcade Theater was built in 1926, and was demolished in January 2007. It was closed as a theater in the late 1970s, and was last used as a pawnshop.

The rebuilt Arcade is meant to be a replica of the original building, and will serve as an extension of the Delta Music Museum.

Funding for the project came from the secretary of state’s office.

The theater will be officially dedicated at the Delta Music Festival in April.

Following the ceremony Wednesday, a reception will follow from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., and at 7 p.m. Easy Eddie and the Party Rockers will perform at the newly opened theater. Gilley will perform two songs with the group.

Tickets to the performance will be $10, and are available at the Delta Music Museum.