AMORY - The more than 65,000 people attending the 34th annual Amory Railroad Festival were busy enjoying the entertainment, arts and crafts, food and carnival during the four-day event.

The warm, dry weather not only brought out locals, but people from other counties and states. Some use the festival weekend as a time for school and family reunions.

Corporate sponsors of this year's festival were recognized at the opening ceremonies and received framed prints of the festival's commemorative poster. The poster was an original watercolor by Mississippi artist Wyatt Waters.

The parade featured many of the Railroad Festival pageant winners, including Miss Railroad Festival 2012 Ashley Forester of Holly Springs and Miss Amory Railroad Festival's Outstanding Teen C. J. Williams of Tupelo.

At the opening ceremonies, Mayor Howard Boozer thanked the hobos for supporting the Railroad Festival.

"Bo Miller and his committee have done an outstanding job on the festival," Boozer said. "The food is wonderful, the weather is good, soak it up and have fun this weekend."

Food vendors saw big crowds throughout the weekend. Some food booths introduced several new items this year, along with old favorites such as apple fritters.

Beta Sigma Phi Sorority, the club that oversees the arts and craft show in Frisco Park, said their vendors were pleased with the traffic by their booths and their sales. Some vendors did better than they expected. All of the arts and crafts spaces in the park were filled.

Bo Miller, festival chairman, said he could not have been more pleased. "Everything went as smooth as it could go," Miller said "It was a record year. The carnival did better than last year, the food booths sold a tremendous amount of food, and the entertainment was phenomenal. It was just a terrific weekend."

Miller said they were already planning on the 35th festival for 2013. The dates have been set for April 11 to 14. "We are planning an even bigger and better festival for the 35th anniversary," said Miller.