AMHERST — Live music, carnival games and a pie-eating contest will be among the activities staged on the fields near the University of Massachusetts football stadium before fireworks are set off to celebrate Independence Day on Tuesday.
Leisure Services and Supplemental Education is once again organizing the town’s Fourth of July celebration, which begins at 5 p.m., about 4½ hours before the fireworks will light up the skies.
Barbara Bilz, LSSE’s interim director, said the event will be much the same as in previous years.
Bounce houses, a “roaming railroad” and hot air balloon rides will be on site.
At 7 p.m., Six Flags Famous Friends will arrive so children can take their pictures with their favorite cartoon characters.
Concessions stands will serve hamburgers and hot dogs and other fair food.
On the main stage at 8:15 p.m., the Amherst Community Band will play up until the fireworks show kicks off at 9:30 p.m.
Parking on site is $5, but UMass Transit will be running buses from outlying campus lots where people can park for free.
Meanwhile, South Amherst will stage its annual Independence Day event that morning on the Fiddlers Green.
Beginning at 9 a.m., the event will include a children’s parade, with kids decked out in costumes, and food.
Members of the Garden Club of Amherst recently spent a morning weeding and pruning the raised garden beds at the Boltwood parking garage.
Ragweed and invasive plants were removed by the nine volunteers, and ivy that has spread beyond the beds was cut back.
The effort to restore the original plantings, dating to the garage’s opening in 2002, was coordinated with Tree Warden Alan Snow.
Nine container gardens on the Town Common, and the 18th-century garden at the Strong House Museum, are already maintained by the club, which turned 100 years old in 2015.
In addition to supporting a scholarship for a UMass horticulture student, making donations to local environmental groups and purchasing garden books for libraries, through money raised from the annual May plant sale, the club is launching a new venture, the Greensward Committee, which aims to monitor and advocate for existing green space in downtown and support additional green areas for municipal and commercial projects.
Amherst Community Connections is sponsoring a free community luncheon for those in need at Unitarian Society, 121 North Pleasant St., from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday.
The luncheon is part of the agency’s Bridge-the-Gap Meal Program, which provides meals when the Amherst Survival Center and Not Bread Alone are closed.
The menu for July 4 includes hot dogs, green salad, Asian coleslaw, stir-fry rice with spicy tofu, watermelon, lemon meringue and pink lemonade.
Anyone interested in volunteering can contact Hwei-Ling Greeney at ACCinAmherst@gmail.com.
Services at Town Hall will be available Thursday mornings beginning July 6.
Town Manager Paul Bockelman recently announced that offices will no longer be closed those mornings. This marks a change in a long-standing practice, in which the central services counter, town clerk’s office and the Planning and Inspections Department remain closed until noon.
Two Lord Jeffery Inn employees were recently honored by the Greater Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau during the 22nd Annual Howdy Awards for Hospitality Gala.
Jeffery Renaud, of Sunderland, a banquet captain since 2011, and Cameron LaRochelle, of Hadley, a server at 30Boltwood for four years, were recognized in front of more than 300 tourism industry professionals at the Log Cabin in Easthampton.
General Manager Fabio Pari-Di-Monriva said in a statement said the inn is lucky to have the employees on staff. “They have demonstrated exceptional guest service time and time again.”
MONDAY: Charter Commission, 5:30 p.m., community room, police station.
WEDNESDAY: Charter Commission, 5:30 p.m., community room, police station.