Seventh annual Main Street celebration is this weekend

The seventh annual Main Street celebration in downtown Wayland will be held Friday and Saturday, July 15 and 16.

The festival will be kicked off Friday evening when New Life Community Church will be host for a 5,000-meter “Light It Up” glow-in-the-dark night run.

The 5K adult run will commence at 9:45 p.m., beginning and ending near the Henika District Library on South Main Street. A one-mile Kids Run will get under way at 8 p.m., also near the library.

The race will be chip-timed by Classic Race Management and emceed by TV/radio personality Gerry Barnaby. A disk jockey will be on hand for a post-race dance party near the start/finish line downtown.

Proceeds from the run will go toward college scholarships and helping to fund building Rising Stars School in Africa.

To ensure safety, the streets of the course will be closed during the children’s race and the full 5K run. The street closures will begin at 7:30 p.m. Friday downtown and in surrounding neighborhoods. They will be extended throughout the entire race route and the streets located within the route shortly afterward. Streets will begin to reopen after the 5K run completed, roughly about 11 p.m.

To register for the run, for more information, or to volunteer to help, visit www.LightItUpRun.com. More information is available by calling Hewitt at 269-NEW-LIFE.

The Main Street celebration will follow, from noon to 9 p.m. Saturday along Main Street. activities and exhibits will include an artist marketplace, children’s activities, live music, local food vendors, a bean bag toss tournament and more.

Entertainment for the day will feature cultural performances from members of the Gun Lake Tribe, the Scottsville Clown Band, Dee Jay the Clown, and two live bands, The Factory and Outer Vibe.

Main Street Director Ingrid Miller said, “The Main Street Celebration is a way to show off Wayland’s progress and show support for all those who made it happen.”

A full schedule of the day’s activities can be found on Wayland Main Street’s website at www.downtownwayland.com/mainstreetcelebration.