NATCHEZ — Theater, history and biscuits will highlight this weekend.
Friday and Saturday is expected to feature partly cloudy skies, while Sunday should be mostly sunny. Highs will range from 90-91 degrees, with lows are forecast for 70.

Natchez Festival of Music: USM Symphony Concert

The University of Southern Mississippi’s Symphony will take the stage at 7 p.m. tonight at the Natchez Performing Arts Center at Margaret Martin.

Tickets are $20 and available online at natchezpilgrimage.com or at the door.

Friday Forum

Chandler Russ and Heather Malone of Natchez Inc. will present a regional update on economic development at 8 a.m. Friday at Natchez Coffee Company.

‘The Trip to Bountiful’

Natchez Little Theatre will present its Fall Pilgrimage play, “The Trip to Bountiful” starting Friday and continuing until Oct. 9.

The Horton Foote play is set in small-town Texas in post-World War II 1940s. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from Sept. 23 to Oct. 8, with a closing performance of a 2 p.m. matinee Sunday, Oct. 9.

Tickets are $15.

To order tickets, call NLT at 601-442-2233 or visit www.natchezlittletheatre.com.

Natchez Biscuit Festival

The Natchez Biscuit Festival will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday on “Biscuit Alley,” also known as Main Street between Pearl and Wall streets.

The day will feature biscuit demonstrations, cookoffs and a day of eating biscuits from restaurants including Carriage House, King’s Tavern and Biscuits and Blues. The Biscuit Queen — all ages 5 and up included — will also be crowned at 2 p.m.

The demonstrations will be conducted at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. by chefs Bingo Starr and Regina Charboneau.

The cookoff will have categories for children, home cooks and chefs.

Charboneau said tickets to eat are $1 to $3. She also encouraged people to sign up for the cookoffs.

To enter the cookoff and for more information, visit www.natchezbiscuitfest.com.

Legends and Lore

Dennis Harried, former instructor at Alcorn State University and Copiah-Lincoln Community College, will speak about Natchez author Richard Wright at 5:30 p.m. Monday as part of the Natchez Tricentennial Legends & Lore series. The event is

free.

Susanne Kirk Tomlinson of Jackson will be the second presenter of the evening talking about Greg Iles and his use of Natchez in his novels. Tomlinson is a retired senior editor from Simon & Schuster Publishing Company in New York.

This event will be at the Co-Lin Willie Mae Dunn Library as part of the month-long opening of the Carolyn Vance Smith Natchez Literary Research Center. The event will feature refreshments and exhibits.

The research center contains documents from the Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration’s history and literature specific to Natchez. Smith was the long-time director of the celebration.