So nice they’re doing it twice: Fayetteville namesake to ‘tour’ again. Things to know

The Marquis de Lafayette is the namesake for Fayetteville and a number of other cities and towns across the U.S. The Frenchman is one of the heroes of the American Revolution, depicted in the fairly recent Broadway smash hit “Hamilton.”

In 1824 and 1825, the marquis, who had been a close friend of both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, embarked on a farewell tour of the United States; it was 50 years after the start of the American Revolution, which started in 1775 with shots fired at Lexington and Concord. The marquis was greeted enthusiastically at every stop, including here in Fayetteville.

Officials in Fayetteville have always touted that the French aristocrat only visited one of the towns named for him: Ours.

The city will be one of the stops in 2025 in a “rolling celebration” of the bicentennial anniversary of that first farewell tour, according to a news release by The Lafayette Society. Each city in the U.S. where Lafayette visited will hold an event on the exact date Lafayette visited — Fayetteville’s turn is March 4 and 5, 2025.

Here are a few ways local participants are getting ready.

The big ball

A centerpiece event is a Regency costume ball like the kind thrown for the marquis when he visited.

The event will include costuming, music, dance, and performances “to replicate as faithfully as possible” how it was 200 years ago,  the release states.

The Committee of Arrangements started planning in February and involves 15 local nonprofits.

But wait, there’s another ball

Period outfit designer Rebecca Russell of Beespoke Vintage Costuming is staging a Lafayette ball this year — a preview — timed to the Sept. 9 annual birthday celebration of the marquis. She is holding workshops this summer that teach people how to make a Regency costume.

She is a member of Daughters of the American Revolution. The two Fayetteville chapters of the organization are sponsoring the ball in 2025.

“She has already received a lot of reservations from folks in the Raleigh area and we hope that Fayettevillians will get excited about it, too,” said Hank Parfitt, a founder of the Lafayette Society and chair of the committee organizing the local tour. “It is a great way to get ready for the big, big ball in 2025.”

What does the national scene look like?

The national American Friends of Lafayette considers our fair city a premier site, one of just seven or eight such sites out of 150 sites planning celebrations, according to the Lafayette Society release.

A mobile app is in the works that will show the cities Lafayette visited. Fayetteville has half of the 20 geotags showing points of interest for the North Carolina leg of the tour.

Chuck Schwam, AFL chief operating officer, said in the release: “It struck me that there is no more important location than Fayetteville, North Carolina.”

He said he expected the event here to draw thousands “to commemorate, celebrate … and to promote diversity and inclusivity.”

Oh yeah, one more thing

Lafayette is having another moment. The U.S. Navy recently announced it would name one of its warships the USS Lafayette. The ship will be commissioned in 2029.

Myron Pitts can be reached at mpitts@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3559.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fayetteville, NC namesake’s tour coming. What to know