His job is also done, with a few days to spare.
"We're ready, we're good. We could have the festival tomorrow if we needed to," Goza said.
The final preparations have been made, and what is expected to be the biggest Ole Brook Festival ever will begin Friday night and carry on throughout the day Saturday. Around 7,000 people or more are expected to attend the free festival, which organizers bill as Mississippi's premiere family festival.
"The final details are being put together, and we're tying up some loose ends," said Jeff Doremus, chairman of the chamber's festival committee. "The big stuff is all done. Now, we're taking care of the little things, watching the weather and waiting for people to show up."
Doremus said vendors - the heart of the festival - will begin arriving Thursday afternoon, and by Friday he said the downtown area would be jam-packed. With organizers observing vendors as indicators to success, this year's festival should live up to expectations.
"We've got most of our main areas completely filled. We probably have maybe 20 spaces left, which is not many at all," Doremus said. "We always have folks who wait until the last minute, watching the weather, and if everything looks great, they'll call in and say, 'Have you got a space left?'"
Everything else, Doremus said, is right on schedule. The festival will include special guests, like Christian illusionist Jared Hall, Mississippi School of the Arts senior and former "American Idol" contestant Jasmine Murray, who will serve as a celebrity judge in the talent show, and a NASCAR display featuring the Joe Gibbs Racing Sprint Cup Show Car.
Live music will fill ears across downtown on Friday night, when local performers Vonda Laird, The Colonels and Ghost Town will be joined by Southwest Mississippi youth performer Hannah Belle Sutherland.
Everything for this year's Ole Brook Festival is bigger and better, but perhaps no other area has been improved as much as the Ole Brook Talent Show, which has been lengthened to run throughout the day Saturday and incentivized with bigger cash prizes. The talent show is sanctioned by the Mid-South Fair Youth Talent Contest, and will serve as a qualifier for its national competition.
"Our sound is professional, our stage is state-of-the-art and our performers will have the opportunity to almost feel like they're in a live concert," said Kay Burton, the chamber's program director and talent show organizer.
Burton said around 40 acts would perform throughout the day in two divisions - the senior division, for ages 13-21, which starts at 9 a.m. and runs until 1 p.m.; and the junior division, for ages 3-12, which starts at 1 p.m. and runs until 5 p.m. The junior division will be further divided into ages 3-8 and 9-12, she said.
At 5 p.m., the first place finishers from five separate categories and the next five highest-scoring performers will compete in the talent show finals. The first place overall winner will win $500 and a bit to compete in the Mid-South national competition. Second place will receive $250, and third will receive $100.
Entry fees are $30 per solo act in the senior division and $20 per solo act in the junior division. The deadline for entry is Wednesday, Sept. 30, but Burton said the rules are lenient and encourage late-comers to call the chamber at 601-833-6961.
There's a reason for Burton's leniency. The chamber strives to promote local talent, she said, whether it be academic or artistic. Last year, four local performers made it to the Mid-South semifinals, she said.
"We have a strong community that's rich in talent, and the only way these young people grow and learn and develop their skills is being able to sing, perform and compete," Burton said. "We want to see our community be all it can be, and however we can promote those different aspects, we want to do it."
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