The 13th edition of WVBG’s Christmas Caroling Contest begins its second night of competition Tuesday at the Vicksburg Convention Center as area vocalists continue their efforts as they vie for some of the $10,000 in prize money.

Performances begin at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Admission is $5 with children 12 and under admitted free.

“This year we have 49 entries,” WVBG owner Mark Jones said. “We have seven divisions. Each year is a little different, so we have a lower elementary division and an upper elementary; we have a junior high school, high school, and then we have soloists all the way from 8 years to 76.”

The independent groups include soloists and trios and quartets and are broken into divisions of ages 8-13, high school and adults.

“The preliminaries are Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, and we will the announce the finalists at the end of the show on Thursday night, and then on Friday night will be finals.”

Holding the finals Friday is a change from previous years, when the contest finals were held on Saturday. Jones said holding the finals Friday was requested by the music teachers, “So we thought we’d try it and see how it works. It’s going to be a lot of extra work on us, but we get over a day earlier.

“I think there will be 23 finalists chosen and we’ll give away $10,000 that night,” he said.