Hillyard Getting Ready For Three Days Of Hi Jinks

Hillyard’s annual festival kicks off Friday night with a dinner and live country music at Harmon Park.

Probably the most popular event of the Hillyard Hi Jinks is the Saturday morning parade on Market Street from the intersection of Market and Wellesley to Harmon Park.

The parade starts at 11 a.m. and will feature the Air Force Marching Band and Color Guard from Fairchild. As many as 7,000 people are expected to line the route.

“The streets are just packed out here,” said Chris Carlson, one of the organizers of the event and president of the Hillyard Festival Association.

“This is really big stuff around here.”

Most of the Hillyard area is getting involved in the three-day event Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The COPS Northeast station at 5208 N. Market will have an open house to celebrate its third anniversary.

The Hillyard Heritage Fire and Rail Museum at 3202 E. Queen, which includes a 34-year-old caboose, will be open for tours.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars post at 3004 E. Queen also will host an open house on Saturday and offer a barbecue and live music in the afternoon. The open house begins at 10 a.m.

The Masonic Temple at Diamond and Market is planning a huckleberry pancake breakfast Saturday from 7 a.m. to noon. The cost is $3 for adults and $1.25 for children.

All of the fun starts at 5 p.m. Friday with live music at Harmon Park and a golf tournament at Esmeralda course.

The prime rib dinner in the park is at 6 p.m., and a country music show begins at 7 p.m. with the Herricks and Heaven Bound.

Music and food aren’t the only fun.

Carnival rides, games, crafts, bingo, kids booths, helicopter rides and clowns are all part of the annual celebration, which dates to the end of World War II.

The annual festival has gone by different names in past years, but this year’s committee decided to go back to the Hi Jinks moniker that was used years ago.

Carlson said Hillyard residents and merchants are trying to preserve the history of the working-class neighborhood, so using the former festival name is consistent with that effort.

She said this year’s festival will have some games for children that won’t cost parents much money.

“It’s going to be cheap enough for people to do things,” she said.

The spirit of the festival shows that Hillyard is a good neighborhood with a lot of decent people, Carlson said.

“Everything you hear about Hillyard is negative, but it’s not that way at all,” she said. , DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: SCHEDULE OF EVENTS Here are events for this weekend’s Hillyard Hi Jinks: Friday 5 p.m. - Golf scramble at Esmeralda. 6 p.m. - Prime rib dinner at Harmon Park. 7 p.m. - Country music show at park.

Saturday 11 a.m. - Parade on Market Street from Wellesley to the park. 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. - Festival in the park with live music, food and fun.

Sunday Noon to 4 p.m. - Family day with games, crafts, carnival and live entertainment in the park.