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A parade of lighted boats on the river

Independence Seaport Museum plans a viewing party.

The 1902 tug Jupiter will lead Saturday's Seaport Parade of Lights on the Delaware at Penn's Landing. Sponsors hope the parade will become an annual event.
The 1902 tug Jupiter will lead Saturday's Seaport Parade of Lights on the Delaware at Penn's Landing. Sponsors hope the parade will become an annual event.Read moreJOHN GERRY / Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild
    by Monica Peters, For The Inquirer
    Published 

Independence Seaport Museum hosts its first Seaport Parade of Lights on the Delaware River on Saturday, along with a viewing party, beginning what is hoped will be an annual tradition.

The parade begins at 5 p.m. and will feature small and large vessels decorated in festive lights. The Jupiter, a 1902 tugboat maintained by the Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild, will lead the parade. Spectators will have two opportunities to see the lighted boats as the parade travels north up the Delaware River, turns around past the Ben Franklin Bridge and returns south, going beyond Penn's Landing. The museum will host a parade-viewing party on the second-floor balcony overlooking the river, serving free hot chocolate to guests. Anyone can watch the parade for free along the waterfront.

Concert, family festival

On Sunday, Mainstage Center for the Arts presents its Holiday Concert and Family Festival at Camden County College.

From 1 to 2 p.m., families can make ornaments, sip hot chocolate, and meet Santa, who will give visitors a small gift. The festival will also feature the annual "Cookie Walk" fund-raiser to help offset touring costs for the center's teenage singing group, the Harmony Show Choir. Members of the choir and their parents will sell homemade cookies.

At 2 p.m. the center's performance groups, the Children's Chorus, the Harmony and Encore choirs, and the High Pointe Dance Troupe will perform. Opera singer and New Jersey native Robin Wilson, who has performed at Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Opera, will perform as a special guest.

Mainstage Center for the Arts is a nonprofit organization providing affordable entertainment and classes in dance, acting, and voice.

Jazz ensemble concert

On Saturday, the Kimmel Center Youth Jazz Ensemble performs its first Commonwealth Plaza concert of the season.

The free concert begins at noon. The ensemble, under the direction of Anthony Tidd, is part of Kimmel Center's Creative Music Program, offering youth the opportunity to train with accomplished teachers and jazz musicians and perform at the Kimmel Center and in the community.