The future of all 44 Miss Mississippi Pageant contestants will look bright next week thanks to the crew who arrived Thursday to install the lighting for the 59th annual event, which will be held at the Vicksburg Convention Center.

This year, Weston Wilkerson of Fayetteville, Ark., is serving at the Miss Mississippi Pageant lighting director/designer.

“I started working at the Miss Mississippi Pageant in 2003 as a programmer, and I have just sort of worked my way through the ranks,” Wilkerson said.

Wilkerson, who works for Limelight Design, said it took him a couple of months “on and off,” to do the prep work for the lighting design, and it will take the crew about five days to install and program the finished product.

Once the lights are installed dress rehearsals will be conducted for lighting just as they are for the contestants.

Even though the preliminary nights are competitions, Wilkerson said the lighting crew might still be making some tweaks before the Saturday night live televised production.

“We want to be 90 percent of the way there Tuesday night so that the contestants are well served Wednesday night,” he said.

Wilkerson said the lights used for the production are rented from a company in Nashville, but he was not privy to the rental fee cost charged to the Miss Mississippi Pageant. He did say, however, that the replacement value of the lights would be more than half a million dollars.

The time it takes to remove the lights form the Vicksburg Convention Center following the pageant is minor compared to installation.

“We will rest up on Saturday night and hopefully break it down by 5 p.m. on Sunday,” he said.

Along with Wilkerson, another Limelight employee is in town to assist with lighting, in addition to two crewmembers out of Jackson, Tenn., and six locals.

Preliminary competitions for the Miss Mississippi Pageant will begin at 8 p.m. Wednesday and run through June 24. The final night of competition and the crowning, will be held June 25.

Tickets are $125 for all four nights, $30 for June 22 and 23, $40 for June 24 and $50 for June 25. For more information, call 601-638-6746, visit missmississippipageant.com or download the Miss Mississippi mobile app, which will let you purchase tickets, vote on contestants, watch the live stream and receive important push notifications and updates.