Jubilee Days – Hagerstown’s annual end-of-summer festival – will return this year with familiar activities and with many changes.
Organizers who volunteered to run the festival have issued a schedule and announced plans to move nearly all activities to the north side of town on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 2 and 3.
“We had eight weeks to put this together,” said Jeremy Jennings, who volunteered to spearhead festival planning after the long-time sponsor made it clear that someone else would have to do it this year. Jennings and friends are focused largely on musical entertainment but activities such as the Jubilee flea market, parade and kids zone are still part of the festival.
“We just need to have this festival here, in this town, and before school starts,” Jennings said.
Jennings, a musician and former bar owner who still runs special events for the Ron-De-Voo, and several friends announced their involvement shortly after the Lions Club announced it would not lead the festival. The new group immediately rescheduled Jubilee Days to the first weekend in August so it could be an “end of summer, back-to-school” event. For many years, it has been on the third weekend in August,. Jennings said his experience here and in other towns shows that festival attendance drops dramatically once school resumes.
William O. Frazier American Legion Post 333 is donating funds to help support Jubilee activities.
Town Council President Allan Bullock said the town is preparing to cooperate fully with the new organizers. Jubilee Days is important to Hagerstown, he said, commending Jennings and friends for stepping up to continue the tradition.
“This year is going to be kind of a temporary patch, to have Jubilee Days, to get us through so we can organize better for the future,” Bullock said.
The community Lions Club has organized the festival since the early 1950s. Nettle Creek Lions Club President Robin Nugent told the Town Council in May that the club would not organize Jubilee Days this year. The club’s membership shrunk and there are not enough to staff the festival.
Planned activities include a music festival Friday and Saturday evenings in a beer garden area outside of the Ron-De-Voo at Perry and College streets.
A craft market will be located on North Perry Street Friday and Saturday afternoons. Craft vendors may contact Michelle Huntington to reserve free booth space, 76-994-9211.
A World Gyroscope Contest will start at 6:30 p.m. Friday in The Meeting Place, 11 E. Main St. A talent show is planned at 7 p.m. with a glow party at 9 p.m.
The traditional parade will step off from Hagerstown Jr.-Sr. High School at 11 a.m. Saturday. It will head south on Washington, turn east on Main, and end at Hagerstown Elementary School.
A kids zone with bounce houses and other activities will open after the parade on College Street near the Hagerstown Library. Carnival games and water balloon games are also planned.
A version of this article appeared in the July 17 2024 print edition of the Western Wayne News.