Beverly Warrior Weekend Expands To New Heights For 2024

BEVERLY, MA — The second annual Beverly Warrior Weekend is shaping up to be bigger, louder, more interactive and to include improved access based on some of the traffic flow experiences from last year as plans are solidified for the two-day event set for May 18 and 19 at the high school.

"The mini Fleet Week thing is really starting to come together," said Beverly Veterans Affairs Director David Perinchief, who said he envisions Warrior Weekend taking on the form of being a North Shore version of the famed New York City event.

(Also on Patch: Beverly Warrior Weekend Brings U.S. Military History Into Proper Focus)

Among the highlights of this year's festival will be keynote speaker Lt. Commander and Beverly High alumna Claudia Pena (Class of '93), along with four teams of re-enactors, more than a dozen military apparatus, and a planned U.S. Coast Guard helicopter landing (emergency response duties notwithstanding).

There will also be a reptile show, virtual skydive, face painting, dive team demonstration and axe throwing to go along with several food vendors, veterans services representatives and a Touch-a-Truck event on Sunday.

Perinchief said some of the congestion issues involving traffic flow from last year will be smoothed out with the help of three satellite parking areas at Beverly Middle School, the Cummings Center and Beverly Hospital as well as volunteers in bright yellow designations and police details.

"The parking is obviously going to be tight — especially on Sunday with the Touch-a-Truck event and the veterans events," he told Patch. "We encourage people to use the overflow parking areas. It's a four-minute walk to the high school and you will spend more time in your car in the parking lot waiting for a spot than you will walking from the overflow lots."

The veterans ceremony is scheduled for Sunday with Lt. Commander Pena's remarks as well as a performance from the Beverly High ensemble band beginning at about 1:15 p.m. The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day.

Perinchief said one of this hopes for the event is to have all 75 slots for the American Blood Cross blood drive on Saturday filled. A QR code is on the poster included here for those who wish to pre-register for a donation time.

Perinchief said the goal remains to build the Warrior Weekend each year with an eye toward the Beverly 400 celebration in 2026.

"We've already started talking with military units about that so we can be giving them enough leeway to make their plans well in advance," he said.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)