This weekend will be brimming with activities to celebrate Springfield's 375th anniversary.
The World's Largest Pancake Breakfast has been served up annually in Springfield since 1986. Saturday's breakfast is expected to draw a huge crowd despite cloudy skies.SPRINGFIELD -- Not even gray skies are expected to dampen the spirits of flapjack fanatics, who are among those likely to belly up to the table -- make that hundreds of tables -- on Main Street for Saturday's World's Largest Pancake Breakfast, an annual family-oriented event in the heart of downtown Springfield.
The pancake extravaganza is just one of many events planned to coincide with a weekend of activities marking Springfield's 375th Birthday Celebration, which continues with a parade at 11 a.m. Saturday and is followed later that night with fireworks in Blunt Park.
For the downtown parade, marchers will wend their way along State and Main streets before ending up at Mill Street, the parade's terminus. A reviewing stand will be outside the new Federal Courthouse on State Street.
The birthday bash continues all day Saturday and spills into Sunday, when the Keep Springfield Beautiful Road Race kicks off at 9 a.m. outside the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Among Saturday's highlights is a performance by the Sci-Tech Jazz Band at 7:30 p.m. in Blunt Park, followed by fireworks in the park at 9 p.m.
As folks lap up pancakes and syrup on Main Street, the Springfield 375th Chorus will be performing outside City Hall on Court Street, beginning at 9:30 a.m.
A full list of this weekend's birthday activities is available at www.springfield375.org.
Saturday's high temperature is forecasted to reach around 71 degrees in Springfield, though cloudy skies will prevail through the weekend with a possibility of showers on both days. Temperatures will be cool when the pancake breakfast begins Saturday morning, but the mercury is expected to reach the high 60s by the time the parade starts at 11 a.m.
The festivities are pegged to the 375th anniversary of the founding of Springfield, which would blossom into a bustling river city and Industrial Revolution powerhouse.
In May 1636, William Pynchon and a band of Puritan followers sailed up the Connecticut River to settle the area comprising today's Springfield. The city later would would grow into a manufacturing hub that inspired innovation and helped spawn games such as basketball, which was born and bred in Springfield.