With a concert, parade, free family fun, tours, and historical presentations, the first-ever Veterans Tribute Weekend in Jacksonville will offer a package of tributes to our Veterans, November 8-11, 2019.
The weekend will kick-off Friday evening with a concert at the Tarheel Concert Lounge, featuring Journey tribute band, Trial by Fire. Doors open at 8PM. Concert begins at 9PM. Admission for Veterans is $5. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Fisher House Foundation.
Saturday includes the annual Veterans Parade along Western Boulevard starting at 10AM, this year featuring celebrity guest: Reuben the Bulldog. The Sudan Shriners will follow with their Fall Ceremonial Parade.
In his debut public appearance at the Veterans Parade in Jacksonville, Reuben the Bulldog (a celebrity YouTube star with 125,000 subscribers) will pay respects to his bulldog veteran mascot buddies. He’ll also be a grand usher, showing off the new Jacksonville-Onslow Council for the Arts bulldog statue, soon to be installed at City Hall.
Fans will have the chance to take pictures of Reuben from 1 to 3PM at the Free Family Fun Event following the parade at the Jacksonville Commons, 100 Recreation Lane.
Also at the Commons, the Carolina Museum of the Marine will host historical presentations on the many firsts accomplished at Camp Lejeune and New River Air Station.
Then, on Monday, Veterans Day Observed, the annual Veterans Day Ceremony will take place at the Disabled American Veterans building, 300 Sherwood Road.
“Our community has always saluted veterans,” said Glenn Hargett, staff to the Visit Jacksonville NC project. “Now we bring together programs to add a salute to their families and friends. We want to invite others to come to Jacksonville to share in this patriotic community’s salute,” said Hargett.
Event highlights are featured below. For full details and information, head to VisitJacksonvilleNC.com/VeteransTribute
Friday, November 8, 2019
The Veterans Tribute Weekend in Jacksonville will kick off Friday evening with a concert presented by the Tarheel Concert Lounge featuring Trial by Fire, A Tribute to Journey. Doors open at 8PM. Concert begins at 9PM.
Saturday, November 9, 2019
10AM: Saturday starts with a star-studded Veterans Day Parade. In addition to Reuben the Bulldog and the USMC Second Division Marine Band, the Sudan Shriners Fall Ceremonial Parade will add more than 300 units to the two-mile route. This will be the largest Veterans Day Parade ever in Jacksonville.
1-4PM: At Saturday’s Free Family Fun Event following the parade, visitors and guests will have a chance to enjoy lunch at one of the local food trucks. The Touch-A-Truck event, hosted by the Zing Zumm Children’s Museum, will offer kids and parents a chance to see, touch and experience military vehicles, city work vehicles, and a monster truck. Games and activities include face painting, laser tag, carnival games, inflatables, hayrides, a rock wall and more.
2-4PM: Ready to learn and feel fiercely proud? Experience “Firsts At Camp Lejeune,” a series of presentations hosted by the Carolina Museum of the Marine from 2 to 4PM inside the Jacksonville Commons Recreation Center. Hear how US Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune played a role in the first amphibious landings; training the first African-American Marines, now known as the Montford Point Marines; the first women Marines; and how the Osprey V-22 vertical takeoff aircraft was pioneered here.
2-4PM: On this Saturday, tour Lejeune Memorial Gardens with trained guides. The Gardens is home to the second-largest Vietnam Veterans Memorial in the nation, the only Montford Point Marine Memorial in the country, the Beirut Memorial and a 9/11 Memorial Beam.
4PM: LtCol Michael (Mike) Corrado will close the day with a free concert at the Commons.
Monday, November 11, 2019
11AM: The weekend will conclude Monday with a Veterans Day Ceremony, hosted by the Onslow County Disabled American Veterans Chapter 16 at the Chapter home, 300 Sherwood Rd in Jacksonville.
Visit Jacksonville NC is proud to introduce this new Veterans weekend tradition – where families and friends come to honor and celebrate our area’s rich military history. Visit Jacksonville NC looks forward to offering a hero’s welcome this weekend and all year long.
Veterans Tribute Weekend
This new event honoring our Veterans and the area’s military heritage is brought to you by WRNS 95.1; BOB 93.3; The River, Rock 105.5; WCTI News Channel 12; Fox Eastern Carolina; the Tarheel Concert Lounge; Zing Zumm Children’s Museum; the Jacksonville-Onslow Council for the Arts; the Carolina Museum of the Marine; Visit Jacksonville NC; and the City of Jacksonville.
Visit Jacksonville NC
Located between New Bern, NC and Wilmington, NC on the coast of North Carolina. Home to US Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, Jacksonville is an emerging tourism destination with a keen respect for its city’s military history. Visitors come here to visit the Lejeune Memorial Gardens, home of one of the few Vietnam Memorials with the name of every fallen service person. Visitors come for outdoor recreation—kayaking, fishing, paddle boarding and more—on The New River. Only 30 minutes from Hammock’s Beach State Park and Swansboro, the area’s abundant hotels and restaurants offer family-friendly options across a range of price points for individuals, families and groups looking for a place to gather and enjoy the outdoors. For more information, go to VisitJacksonvilleNC.com.
