For at least 70 years, Jubilee Days has been a late summer fixture of life in Hagerstown. Organized by Nettle Creek Lions Club, the annual festival returns this weekend.
Activities start Thursday evening with the Gyroscope Championship of the World at 6 p.m. in The Meeting Place at 11 E. Main St. Anyone can enter free contests to see who can make a gyroscope spin the longest. Gyroscopes will be provided by Tedco Toys, which makes them in Hagerstown.
South Plum Street will come alive Friday afternoon with the festival market featuring booths of flea market and food vendors. The market will be open until 9 p.m. and reopens Saturday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Also Friday, the Classic Car Show will fill Walnut Street from Washington to Perry from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Registration starts at 4:30 for $10 per vehicle. A DJ will provide music and trophies will be presented to top entries.
Saturday’s activities kick off with a breakfast from 7-9 a.m. at the Nettle Creek Senior Center, 327 E. Main St. A free-will donation is asked.
A tractor show will presage the Jubilee Parade. Tractors can line up at 8 a.m. at Hagerstown High School, drive in the parade and then line up afterward on Walnut Street.
The parade is Saturday’s big activity, featuring fire trucks with sirens wailing, floats, vehicles and music. Many HHS alumni classes usually ride in the parade. It will form at Hagerstown High School starting at 9 a.m. and gets rolling on Washington Street at about 9:30.
Hagerstown’s Sister City — Hagerstown, Maryland — will present a scholarship at the reviewing stand in front of the post office.
A Kids Zone with bounce houses and games will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Hagerstown First United Methodist Church parking lot on Southmarket Street. A dunk tank featuring well-known locals will be located nearby along with a “Chuck A Duck” game. Next to the Kids Zone will be a free BB gun shooting range, staffed by Scouts from Troop 3.
Tricycle and EzyRoller races will take place nearby. A bicycle rodeo by the Optimist Club is planned at 2 p.m.
From noon to 1 p.m., the HHS Archery teams will give a demonstration at the Abbott’s Candies parking lot in the first block of South Perry Street. Mike Hemmelgarn will perform his comedy, ventriloquism and juggling act at 2 p.m.
Local musical entertaining is planned in a tent at Plum and Southmarket streets, including Hoosier Corners Square Dance Club at 11 a.m., New Testament Church of Christ at noon, Annette Miller at 1 p.m., Ron Curry at 2 p.m. and the Leversedge Band at 3.
A version of this article appeared in the August 16 2023 print edition of the Western Wayne News.