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Opening Night Reception, Lafayette Memorabilia Display Thursday, January 23, 2025, 5:30 – 7:00 pm Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts, 110 West Finney Avenue, Suffolk, VA Registration website: https://friendsoflafayette.wildapricot.org/event-5946871
Suffolk Welcomes Lafayette! |
| Sunday, February 23, 2025, 1:00 – 4:00 pm Suffolk Visitor Center 524 North Main Street, Suffolk, VA Registration website: https://friendsoflafayette.wildapricot.org/event-594677 The Suffolk Visitor Center will welcome General Lafayette at the former site of the Nansemond County Courthouse, where he arrived in 1825. Lafayette will travel down Main Street in a horse-drawn carriage along the same route into town that he traveled 200 years ago. The Southside Community Band will entertain with music that Lafayette knew and loved. The Mayor or his representative will formally welcome Lafayette and read the proclamation of Lafayette Days in Suffolk and Somerton. Lafayette will recall the adventures of his encampment at Sleepy Hole at the beginning of the Virginia Campaign in March 1781. The 7th Virginia and the Youth Virginia Regiment will demonstrate what life was like for the militia during the American Revolution. This free, family-friendly event includes activities for children too, both under the pavilion and next door at Riddick’s Folly House Museum. |   |
Lafayette Bicentennial Banquet
Tuesday, February 25, 2025, 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Hilton Garden Inn Suffolk Riverfront, 100 East Constance Road, Suffolk, VA
Registration Website: https://friendsoflafayette.wildapricot.org/event-5936653
Hilton Garden Inn Suffolk Riverfront, 100 East Constance Road, Suffolk, VA
Registration Website: https://friendsoflafayette.wildapricot.org/event-5936653
Enjoy a festive evening at the Hilton Garden Inn Suffolk Riverfront as we commemorate the return of General Lafayette to Suffolk. This event will echo the banquet at which Lafayette was entertained on February 25, 1825. Lafayette, portrayed by Colonial Williamsburg's Mark Schneider, will be the guest of honor. He will be formally welcomed during the opening reception, where the Mayor of Suffolk's Proclamation of Lafayette Days will be read. The dinner begins with the same thirteen toasts given 200 years ago! Music of the Regiment will perform with the instruments and repertoire that Lafayette himself knew. American Friends of Lafayette Vice President Robert Kelly, Director of the Gloucester Museum of History, will deliver the keynote address. Don't miss this unique opportunity to relive history, celebrate the enduring friendship between France and the United States, and meet Lafayette. Attendees are kindly requested to wear period dress or cocktail/business attire. The presenting sponsor for the evening is TowneBank. Tickets are $75 each, available by cash or check at the Suffolk Visitor Center or the website above.
Lafayette Meets the Murfreesboro, NC Committee in Somerton
Wednesday, February 26, 11:00 am – noon
8442 Arthur Drive, Suffolk, VA
Registration Website: https://friendsoflafayette.wildapricot.org/event-594686
8442 Arthur Drive, Suffolk, VA
Registration Website: https://friendsoflafayette.wildapricot.org/event-594686
 | General Lafayette will be welcomed to Historic Somerton with a free reception on the grounds of the Washington Smith Ordinary, the only building still standing in Suffolk where he dined in 1825. Lafayette and his entourage will be escorted to the site by a bagpiper. A city representative will formally welcome Lafayette and read the Mayor’s proclamation of Lafayette Days in Suffolk and Somerton. Lafayette will share stories about his return to the United |
States, his recent welcome in the town of Suffolk, and the significance of the southern portion of the Farewell Tour. Lafayette will be introduced to members of the Committee of Arrangements from Murfreesboro, North Carolina, just as he was in 1825. Local ladies will provide refreshments to the attendees, who will have the opportunity to meet Lafayette. As Lafayette and his escorts depart for Murfreesboro, the bagpiper will play “Auld Lang Syne.”
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