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Celebrate the Bicentennial of Lafayette’s Grand Tour in Fayetteville, NC

By Staff Report, posted 1 year ago
Graphic courtesy of the Greater Fayetteville Chamber

In March 2025, a national celebration will recognize the 200th anniversary of Lafayette's Grand Tour of America. Fayetteville is one of the signature cities for this nationwide event and will hold its Lafayette Farewell Tour bicentennial celebration March 4-5, 2025, with historical reenactments, music, dinners and guided tours downtown. 

The festivities were planned through a partnership with the American Friends of Lafayette national organization and Fayetteville’s own Lafayette Society, which has been celebrating the Marquis’s memories and achievements since 1981. Planned festivities include:

  • Tuesday Morning, March 4: Head downtown to welcome Lafayette as he returns in a horse-drawn carriage with his son George Washington Lafayette and Hutchins Burton, the governor of North Carolina in 1825. The Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry will march alongside in uniform, just as they did in 1825.
  • Tuesday Evening, March 4: Dance the night away at a formal ball held in Lafayette’s honor. Dance master Charles Steplively of Virginia will be on hand to help instruct dancers through their steps.
  • Tuesday and Wednesday, March 4 - 5: See the carriage Lafayette rode in, the home of his Fayetteville military escort, Colonel Henry W. Ayer, Commander of the North Carolina Artillery, and the military units welcoming Lafayette under Ayer’s command. Short guided tours will also be available of the first floor of the downtown armory, where Lafayette’s carriage will be housed during the festivities.
  • Wednesday, March 5: Explore the Lafayette Trail throughout the city, which includes Liberty Point Resolves (Fayetteville’s own “Declaration of Independence) documents, 200-year-old souvenirs related to Lafayette’s visit, and Methodist University’s Lafayette Collection on display at Davis Memorial Library.
  • Wednesday Evening, March 5: Enjoy an elegant dinner featuring menu items typical of Lafayette’s day accompanied by live music and dramatic scene reenactments of Lafayette’s visit to Fayetteville.

Click here to reserve your tickets.

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