The Aurora Fossil Museum and the Town of Aurora are gearing up for the 23^rd annual Aurora Fossil Festival, an event that showcases the rich paleontological history of the area.

The event will kickoff Friday at 6 p.m. with live music and entertainment, as well as opening ceremonies, where the Aurora Fossil Museum will recognize Rich Olsen, a retired petroleum geologist and vice-chairman of the Museum’s board of directors, will be honored as the event’s Fossil Master, a title similar to master of ceremonies, according to Cynthia Crane, director of the museum. Olsen has served on the board for 15 years and has dedicated a lot of time and energy to help build up the museum, as well as promote education of fossils and paleontology, Crane said.

Saturday, the festival will continue at 8 a.m. with vendors of food and arts and crafts. A 5K run will begin at 8:30 a.m., as well. Loads of rejects have been brought to the Museum’s fossil pits for festivalgoers and amateur paleontologists to dig through, Crane said. PotashCorp-Aurora will also be hosting mine tours to showcase where the fossils at the Museum come from.

Throughout the day, many activities and events will be available for attendees, including a Civil War encampment, a car cruise-in, helicopter rides and more, according to Crane. The festival’s parade will begin at 11 a.m. on Main Street, featuring a lineup of residents and organizations, and at 1 p.m., several acts will hit the stage to present musical entertainment.

An education tent will house a lineup of organizations that will offer information related to area resources for children and families. Among the organizations will be: Sylvan Heights Bird Park, which will be bringing waterfowl for attendees to interact with; Carolina Raptor Center, which will be showcasing hawks, owls and other birds of prey; Schiele Museum of Natural History of Gastonia, which will host a mineral hunt through the use of panning; Rocky Mount Children’s Museum, which will be educating participants about solar flares and other things happening with the sun; the N.C. Estuarium; Bright Futures of Beaufort County; Beaufort-Hyde Partnership for Children; and several others, according to Crane.

“And then, in the Aurora Community Center, which the Town of Aurora so graciously lets the museum use for space, we will host the fossil clubs and universities and museums for fossil displays and identification,” Crane said. “There are a variety of organizations that are coming from along the East Coast.”

Crane said among those entities expected to attend include East Carolina University, N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, the N.C. Fossil Club and the Smithsonian.

The Museum will be coordinating several components of the event, including three paleontology lectures in the Museum’s Learning Center and a live auction at the Learning Center, with proceeds going to fund operations at the Museum, allowing it to remain a free-admission-museum, Crane said. The live auction will end around 7 p.m., at which time a 6.75-inch Megalodon tooth will be raffled.

The lectures will feature presentations of ancient whales, the Triassic Period of North Carolina and Titanoboa, a giant snake from the same time period as the fossils in Aurora, Crane said. All three lectures are free and open to the public.

Crane said the event is a huge draw for the town, with last year’s attendance in the range of 13,000. As an event growing in popularity, the festival provides an opportunity for visitors and residents alike to witness the vast, rich fossil record in the area, Crane said.

The town and its organizations, as well as volunteers, have pulled together to prepare for the festival — an event of which the town’s residents are proud, according to Crane.

“North Carolina has a rich fossil history,” Crane said. “Typically, if you’re on a beach or if someone is building a road or bridge, they’re going to cut into some kind of fossil. To have a festival where people can come and learn about fossils and our rich history and see the museum and engage with professionals and collectors and people that have a records of the fossil history here, it just makes for a great festival. It’s an event that we are hoping will be bigger than last year. We invite everyone to come out and experience what Aurora has to offer, meet the people of the area and have a good, wholesome, fun time.”

The festival will end with a fireworks display at 9:30 p.m. Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the community is invited to attend a multidenominational church service at the festival grounds.

The Aurora Fossil Museum is located at 400 Main St. in downtown Aurora. For more information, visit aurorafossilfestival.net or call the museum at 252-322-4238.