The 17^th annual Amelia Earhart festival is taking place this weekend in Atchison, Kan..  The festival is to celebrate the Atchison’s native 116^th birthday. Earhart made Atchison proud when she became the first woman to make a solo trip flight across the country in 1928.

The events for the festival begin Thursday night with the grandfather Earhart’s ice cream social. The social is at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in honor of Amelia’s grandfather who attended St. Mark’s during his life. This event is from 5-7 p.m..

On Friday from 2-4 p.m. the Atchison library is hosting a program featuring Earhart by the historian Ann Biney. Then Lakefest starts at 7 p.m. at Warnock Lake. This is an outdoor concert featuring country music performers Gary Allan, Lee Brice and Lauren Alaina.

Saturday there are several events all throughout the day in various locations. A few include:

• 2K/8K Fun Run-Walk at 7:30 at the YMCA.
• Fly-in at Amelia Earhart Airport from 8-noon. Includes pancake breakfast from 8-11.
• Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum-tour the home of Earhart from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Atchison County Raceway begins at 1 p.m. at the Atchison race track.

There are many activities going on downtown Saturday as well. There are children activities every hour starting at 9 a.m. at the 600 block of the Commercial Street Mall. Celebrate Earhart’s birthday with cake from 11 a.m. to noon at 500 block of Commercial.

At the Riverfront Park there is live music starting at 4:30 p.m.. The air show is performing aerobatic tricks at 8 p.m. at the park. The final event of the night is the “Concert in the Sky”, which is an hour long show of fireworks choreographed with music. The display takes place on the banks of the Missouri River after dark and people need to bring their own seating.

“The fireworks are my favorite part. They have the best fireworks I have ever seen,” said Joseph Cool, who has attended the festival 7 different years.

In additional to all these events, there are carnival rides and food booths in the lots of 4^th and Main. Rides begin at 6-11 p.m. until Friday and noon to midnight on Saturday.