The booming music in the square, dampened only by the shrieks of joy from trill-seeking carnivalgoers, echoed through Mexico last weekend.

Hosted by the Mexico Jaycees, the annual Soybean Festival was held Friday and Saturday, and past president Logan Ray said this year’s event drew a great crowd.

“The parade was bigger than last year,” Ray said on Saturday. “We've got more food vendors, more craft vendors and it’s just been a great year so far.”

For once, Missouri weather cut the Jaycees a little slack. With only blue skies and a cool steady breeze, everyone stayed dry, and the annual car show, organized by Freedom Road Riders Local 13, was able to return this year.

Ray said the cornhole tournament fell a little flat compared to previous years, but the entertainment Friday and Saturday night certainly delivered on its promises.

For decades, the focal point of the Soybean Festival was celebrating the crop for which it was named and the importance of agriculture within Audrain County.

While Audrain County is still very much an agriculture-centered community, over the years, the Soybean Festival has shifted its focus to supporting local businesses and artists.

“We’re an ag community, but at heart, we’re a small town and that’s why we want to keep doing this,” Ray said. “It just supports all the businesses down here, it supports all the small businesses that set up their vendor booths and it really supports a lot of these up-and coming performers that need a chance to play somewhere.”

New to the Soybean Festival this year were Monica Austin, who opened for Jake Clayton on Friday night, and Jacob Smalley with the Morgan County Line, who closed out the festival Saturday.

Ray said he was particularly excited to see what Smalley had to bring to the stage as he performs a lot of originals and just signed a new deal out of Nashville.

Despite his new Nashville deal, Smalley said performing on local stages is his base.

“I am from a small town, a lot smaller than Mexico, so I am no stranger to a small town,” Smalley said before his show.

He followed Fully Loaded, a classic rock cover band out of Northeast Missouri, who returned to the festival this year after taking a year off.

Much like the carnival rides, the Soybean Festival has a lot of moving parts.

The Mexico Jaycees prepare for months on end securing sponsors, booking a carnival, reaching out to area bands and vendors and so much more.

“This entire weekend and a couple months leading up to it is pretty tough,” Ray said.

Every year, the Mexico Jaycees learn and work hard to improve the festival to maximize enjoyment. This year, they tried a new layout, which seemed to be well received by the locals as well as the bands.

The Graf & Sons stage was repositioned this year to face west going down Jackson Street instead of south as it had in previous years.

“It just gives it a little more open feel – it helps with the weather too,” Ray said. “It gets a nice breeze working through here and it makes it a lot easier on the bands getting all their equipment on and off the stage.”

For Ray, all the work that the Jaycees they put into the festival is more than worth it.

“We want to see all the kids and the families coming out and getting outside, not being on their phones,” Ray said. “We want to hang out together and build relationships with each other."

For more photos, see The Mexico Ledger’s online photo galleries.