Foley’s citywide celebration marking 100 years since its incorporation is set to reach a high point in April, following a kickoff earlier in the year that included the dedication of the city’s new Centennial Plaza and clock tower.
Organizers have dubbed the April event the city’s “official birthday party,” featuring a picnic and a concert by the Baldwin Pops at Heritage Park. Due to weather concerns around the original date, the event was ultimately moved indoors to the Foley Civic Center to ensure the celebration could proceed as planned.
The birthday festivities were set to kick off with a performance by Foley Elementary School’s show choir at the base of the city’s new 52-foot clock and bell tower. Following the performance, members of the Centennial Committee planned to recognize a number of the city’s historic homes and businesses with special certificates honoring their role in Foley’s history.
Later in the evening, the Baldwin Pops were slated to perform a special concert, joined by top Baldwin County band students taking part in a scholarship performance series. The orchestra’s conductor composed an original Centennial Tribute March specifically for the occasion, and the program also included other marches originally written in 1915, the year Foley was founded, alongside a mix of more contemporary selections.
City organizers encouraged residents attending the picnic to bring their most creative spread, offering a special centennial gift basket as a prize for the best-decorated picnic display of the day.
In the weeks leading up to the birthday picnic, the city also planned a series of historic downtown walking tours, held each Saturday morning in April. The hour-long tours were set to begin at the Foley Welcome Center near the intersection of Alabama 59 and U.S. 98, with no reservations required for participants.
The centennial celebration reflects Foley’s broader effort throughout the year to highlight its history as a small Baldwin County farming community that grew into one of the area’s most recognizable retail and tourism hubs. City officials pointed residents and visitors to the city’s tourism website for a full schedule of centennial events planned throughout the year.
The celebration builds on momentum from the city’s January kickoff event, when Foley officially unveiled its new plaza and began ringing the clock tower’s bell for the first time, marking the formal start of a yearlong tribute to the city’s founding a century earlier.