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LIBERTY—Spring is officially on its way and the City of Liberty is gearing up for a celebration.

The City of Liberty and Liberty Festivals & Events recently announced preparations for the second annual Liberty Spring Festival and Cruz-In set for May 4.

Liberty will be partnering with The Parenting Place’s “Ride for the Child” program, which will make its final stop at the festival for an awards ceremony.

The festival will offer a wide variety of activities for the whole family and delicious food, according to Liberty Festivals & Events Chari Tammy Clark.

“We want to bring people back to visit,” Clark said. “We want to showcase our community for exactly what it is, which is a great place to live.”

Clark said it is an exciting opportunity to be able to partner with The Parenting Place.

“We’re very excited to be able to partner with The Parenting Place,” Clark said. “It will be a great addition to our event and will bring even more business to downtown Liberty.”

“You can never tell what kind of numbers you are going to have, but we’re anticipated 300 plus bikes during the festival,” she continued. “Those people will be downtown looking for restaurants, looking for festival food and interacting with the local businesses.”

Liberty Festivals & Events set out conduct four major events each year, which go to fund local programs and activities.

“We’re a non-profit organization and all of our money goes back into the city,” Clark said. “We’ve had some success in giving back to the community. The proceeds that came in on our chili-tasting contest went to Mary’s House. The money that came in on our Holiday Bizarre went to the City of Liberty for toys for kids, and this time the proceeds will go to The Parenting Place. We just want to give back.”

Up until last year, it had been 10 years since Liberty had an organized festival downtown, according to Clark.

“I’ve already got 30 vendors now and they are continuing to come in,” Clark said. “We’re going to be spread out, so it’s really going to be a fun time.”

The committee will provide booths for non-profit organizations at the Spring Festival. Clark said anyone is invited to join.

“We’re about giving it back,” she said.

Below is a list of scheduled events for May’s Spring Festival:

Arts, crafts, children’s activities, non-profit organizations -10:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Food, music and entertainment from 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.

Cruz-in from noon– 4:00 p.m.

Final destination of the “Ride for the Child” and Awards Ceremony - 3:30 p.m.

Also mark your calendars for these upcoming Liberty events:

Depot Street Market – Saturdays in April (8:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)

Music Series – Saturdays in May (7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.)

Fall Festival – Oct. 26

Halloween Trick-or-Treat Downtown – Oct. 31

Holiday Bazaar – Rosewood Center -Nov. 17

Christmas Parade – December.

(Additional events are still being considered for 2013)