Alexandria will host its annual birthday celebration on Saturday at Oronoco Bay Park. 

The celebration, which will commemorate the city’s 269th birthday and the United States’ 242nd birthday, starts at 6 p.m. with a performance by the U.S. Navy Band Commodores. 

The town crier will introduce Mayor Allison Silberberg at 7:30 p.m. and Alexandria’s Poet Laureate Wendi R. Kaplan will provide a poetry reading. 

Silberberg and city council members will distribute the city’s birthday cake at 8 p.m., followed soon after by an Alexandria Symphony Orchestra performance at 8:30 p.m. Jon Kalbfleisch will serve as guest conductor. 

The event will conclude with a 9:30 p.m. grand finale fireworks display, accompanied by the “1812 Overture” and cannon support from the Presidential Salute Battery of the Third United States Infantry Regiment of Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Virginia.