The 30th annual Empire Anchor Day celebration's theme is "Beached in Empire" and features a major change in the Anchor Parade.

The Anchor Day celebration runs from Friday night through Sunday afternoon and features many of the traditional favorites, like the Saturday morning fun run and the children’s games at the beach.

The centerpiece of the celebration will be the parade at 2 p.m. Saturday. In past years, the parade went around the circuit twice, which earned it the claim “the parade so nice, it goes around twice.”

Not this year. Organizers Mike and Carol Vanderberg have changed the tradition to only one trip around the parade loop, with the conclusion at the landmark anchor down on the beach.

“With all the improvements made at the beach, we wanted to put the emphasis of the celebration at the beach and the anchor. So this year the parade will go around once, then head down Wilce Street, to Lake Street, to Niagara and down to the anchor,” Mike Vanderberg said.

Not having the parade go around twice has already turned some heads.

“Yeah, I’m hearing some concerns about it. People are also concerned that it will create a traffic jam down at the beach,” he said.

Following is a list of events, time and places for the Anchor Day celebration:

FRIDAY

— 9 p.m. Metal Anchor Dance with music by ABNC at the new beach basketball courts.

— Around dusk, showing of the film Raising the Anchor, plus a second movie Stepping into Liquid, at the green space next to the Post Office on Front Street in Empire.

SATURDAY

— All Day, Old Car Show, Johnson Park

— 9 a.m. Anchor Day Fun Run, registration starts at 8:30 a.m., start at the Anchor.

— 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Empire Farmers’ Market, green space next to the post office.

— 10 a.m. Empire Eagles’ Bake Sale and Lunch, Township Hall, Front Street.

— 10 a.m. Anchor Day Basketball Tournament, beach basketball court.

— Noon, Children’s games, at the beach.

— 2 p.m. Anchor Day Parade, line up at Johnson Park starting at 1 p.m..

— 2-8 p.m. Empire Lions Club BBQ Chicken Dinner, Township Hall.

— Anchor Day Dance featuring The Corvairs, Village Inn.

SUNDAY

— 1 p.m. Anchor Day Volleyball tournament, beach volleyball court.

— 1 p.m. Flotilla on Lake Michigan, off of the beach.