LAWRENCE — The slate for The Old-Fashioned Fourth of July celebration at the Lawrence Heritage State Park visitor center, 1 Jackson St., got so big this year that organizers recruited July 3 to contain it all.
The free festivities have been a year in the making for the banner celebration, it being the country’s 250th anniversary and the park’s 20th Old-Fashioned Fourth.
Rich Padova, a summer interpreter at the park, said Saturday’s July Fourth lineup will include a jazz band, parade, host of traditional activities including a public reading of the Declaration of Independence, lunch of hot dogs and hamburgers and ice cream and a bonanza of freebies.
Earlier, on Friday at 11 a.m., actress Sheryl Faye is scheduled to present her 45-minute historical theater performance “Abigail Adams: Liberty & Legacy.”
The show will be on the third floor in the community room at the visitor center.
Faye is set to bring America’s second First Lady to life, dramatizing her pioneering ideas about women’s rights, equality and freedom.
The presentation will be followed by a lunch of sandwiches, homemade macaroni salad, drinks and dessert including oatmeal cookies made by Friends of Lawrence Heritage State Park member Andrea Vannett.
Former park supervisor Britt Boughner will make his famous macaroni salad.
“Everybody just loves it,” Padova said.
Day 1 will also include a raffle of Christmas in July gifts.
After lunch, Padova will start prepping for the next day’s full schedule.
Saturday’s festivities will also start at 11 a.m. (if the weather is too hot, activities will be moved inside) with music by the Live Oak Jazz Band of Methuen.
Their set will include traditional jazz numbers.
The traditional Fourth events get underway at noon and will include a flag-raising by volunteers — typically veterans — the singing of the “National Anthem” by Joey Grieve and words by local office holders.
Mayor Brian DePeña is expected to speak.
The annual noon parade around the block embodies the festivities as much as any of the program events.
The parading rabble will include flag waving families, tail wagging dogs, hand waving public officials and visitors in period costume including the Lawrence Civil War Memorial Guard and the Sixth Maine Battery.
The entourage files around the park in a little more than five minutes.
Its simplicity and the public participation sets the tone for the Old-Fashioned Fourth.
As always, the audience will take turns reading the 1,320-word Declaration of Independence.
Lunch will include hot dogs and hamburgers, salads and ice cream.
The festivities will include the best patriotic costume contest, with winners in multiple categories.
Freebies, while supplies last, will include commemorative flags and buttons, parchment printed copies of the Declaration of Independence and copies of Padova’s latest publication, “25 Unsung Heroes and Heroines of the American Revolution: Why What They Did Matters.”
A young actor from the Acting Out! Theater Co. in Lawrence will be on hand in the person of Thomas Jefferson, the declaration’s author.
The festivities end at 3 p.m. giving everyone enough time before any evening activities begin.
Padova came up with the Old-Fashioned Fourth idea back in 2006.
It was his second summer interpreting at the State Park.
“I thought what can I do to bring people in on the holiday in a nice, spirited way,” he said.
He consulted with Louise Sandberg, a since retired archivist at the Lawrence Public Library, who showed him pamphlets from Lawrence July Fourth celebrations in the 19th century.
Padova replicated the programs in a modern setting.
“It is free, it is fun, safe and family friendly,” he said in an earlier interview. “It brings the community together to celebrate the nation’s birthday within a historical context at the state park and the restored boarding house.”
Early mill workers including Yankee farm girls once lived in the boarding house.
The event is funded by grants, donations from local businesses and individuals including a donation from Lawrence resident Jonas Stundzia.
Donors and sponsors include the following: Market Basket, Dairy Queen of North Reading, Service Center of Greater Lawrence Inc., Merrimack Valley Central Labor Council, McDonald’s Restaurant/MCD Management Company, Salvatore’s Italian Restaurant.
Other supporters included the Saint Alfio Society, Rapscallion Brick Oven Pizza & Brewery, Crown Bakeries, Mann Orchards, Pringle Foundation, Sullivan Insurance & Real Estate Agency, Butcher Boy Market, New England Pretzel & Popcorn and Friends of Lawrence Heritage State Park.