Lafayette, French Hero of American Liberty, Returns –
Join us to welcome him back!
Help us commemorate and celebrate the bicentennial of Lafayette’s visit to Fayetteville, NC – the only place named for him that he personally visited!
Tuesday afternoon, March 4 at noon: Join the throng welcoming Lafayette as he enters town in a horse-drawn carriage, accompanied by his son George Washington Lafayette and Hutchins Burton, the governor of North Carolina in 1825. The Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry will march beside him in uniform as his bodyguard, just as they did in 1825. Free and open to the public.
Tuesday evening, March 4, from 6-9 pm: Dance the evening away at a formal ball held in Lafayette’s honor. Regency attire is encouraged but not required. Dance master Charles Steplively of Virginia will be on hand to guide you through the steps, accompanied by live period music performed by Syllabub. Ticketed event.
Tuesday and Wednesday, March 4 and 5 – See the carriage Lafayette rode in and visit the home of his military escort! In 1825, Colonel Henry W. Ayer was Commander of the North Carolina Artillery, and the military units welcoming Lafayette to Fayetteville on March 2 were under his command. His family donated the carriage used for Lafayette’s visit to the Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry (F.I.L.I.), the oldest private militia in continuous existence in the South (and one of the oldest in the nation) and the one that served as Lafayette’s escort while in Fayetteville. The carriage is currently housed in their armory on Burgess Street in historic downtown Fayetteville. There will be short guided tours; reservations are required.
Also explore Fayetteville’s Lafayette Trail: Visit the same sites (by driving or walking) that Lafayette visited in 1825! The Fayetteville Museum, the Museum of the Cape Fear, and the Arts Council will also have Lafayette-related exhibits.
Wednesday afternoon, March 5, from 1-5 pm: Head 15 minutes north of downtown to see the Methodist University Lafayette Collection on display (from 1-5 pm) at Davis Memorial Library. Free; no registration required.
Wednesday evening, March 5, from 6-9 pm: Enjoy an elegant dinner and lively music in the stately Ralph and Linda Huff Orangery at the Cape Fear Botanical Garden. Be entertained by the dramatic portrayal of scenes from Lafayette’s visit to Fayetteville, directed by Fayetteville State University theatre professor (and Sweet Tea Shakespeare founder) Jeremy Fiebig. Ticketed event.
Click here for tickets and reservations
More about the celebration in Fayetteville…
On March 4-5, 2025, Fayetteville will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the visit to our city by the Marquis de Lafayette, who fought alongside George Washington in the American Revolution and was an international symbol of freedom and human rights. These events are part of the national bicentennial celebration of Lafayette’s “Farewell Tour” of 1824-25, when President James Monroe persuaded him to return to visit America.
The “Farewell Tour” coincided with the 50th anniversary of our nation’s founding and the country was in a patriotic mood. Lafayette was the last surviving major general of the American Revolution and he was enormously popular. For many towns, it was the “event of the century.” In the larger cities like Boston, New York, or Philadelphia, crowds of 100,000 and more gathered just to get a glimpse of Lafayette, numbers that in modern times are associated with international rock stars.
The bicentennial celebration of the Farewell Tour begins in New York City in August of 2024. This will kick off a “rolling celebration,” as each city holds events on the exact dates they occurred. These will be immersive “living history” events with authentic costuming, music, dance, and other performances to replicate as faithfully as possible exactly what it must have felt like to be there two hundred years ago.
The celebration in Fayetteville, North Carolina, will take place on March 4-5, 2025. It will include a grand procession led by Lafayette and his entourage in an open carriage, a period costume ball, and a dinner party with live theatrical performances that portray various scenes from his visit. Fayetteville was the very first city named for Lafayette (in 1783) and the only namesake city he visited, facts that will elevate this to one of the nation’s premier celebrations. The local planning committee has partnered with Fayetteville’s Lafayette Society, but it also includes numerous other community organizations.
The American Friends of Lafayette (AFL) is coordinating the Farewell Tour bicentennial on the national level. They have designated Fayetteville as a “premier bicentennial site.” Chuck Schwam, AFL Chief Operating Officer, said “There is no more important location than Fayetteville, North Carolina… we expect thousands to descend upon Fayetteville for the purpose of commemorating, celebrating, and educating.”
Indeed, the celebration will be fun but also educational, with symbolic connections to the past. Two hundred years ago, there were social and political divisions in our country not unlike the present. President Monroe saw Lafayette as a unifying force for America in 1824-25 and he can be a unifying force again. Indeed, his ideals and life story make him the perfect role model for our Nation on the eve of its 250th birthday.
The American Friends of Lafayette, founded in 1931 at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania to honor the memory of Lafayette, is a national organization with over 500 members in 35 states. This organization will coordinate the Farewell Tour on the national level. They have partnered with Fayetteville, North Carolina, and will highlight our celebration, an honor accorded only to 8 other cities out of hundreds of celebrations. For more information about the national celebration, please visit www.lafayette200.org.
The bicentennial celebration was the main topic of discussion at the annual meeting of the American Friends of Lafayette in LaGrange, GA, in June 2023. Gwen Melton, president of Fayetteville’s Lafayette Society board of directors, and her husband Ken are pictured here with two ladies dressed as if they are expecting Lafayette himself to visit them!