Gold medal Olympian and Towson native Michael Phelps will be honored during a day-long “Phelpstival” on Saturday.
The festivities will begin at 9 a.m. at Towson High School, where Cedar Avenue will be temporarily renamed in honor of Phelps.
At 10 a.m., a parade will commence along York Road. It will begin at the edge of campus, at the intersection of York and Cross Campus Drive, continue to Pennsylvania Avenue into downtown Towson and end on Washington Avenue.
Parade participants include marching bands and professional sports team cheerleaders and dancers.
The parade staging area is along Cross Campus Drive, next to the Glen towers and garage, which means York Road will be closed from 9 a.m. to noon. WBAL channel 11 and WJZ channel 13 will broadcast the parade live.
At 11:30 a.m., County Executive Jim Smith will present Phelps with a key to the county at Courthouse Plaza. The county’s congressional delegation will also greet Phelps. Following the ceremony, a festival will be held around the Courthouse. It will include music, face painting and balloon animals for children, and food and drink specials from local restaurants.
The event is co-sponsored by the Towson Business Association, the Baltimore County Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Towson Committee.
The festival comes less than a month after Phelps won six swimming gold medals at the Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.
On Friday afternoon, Phelps will sign autographs at the AT&T Wireless store in the Towson Commons shopping center. He is scheduled to be there between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m.
Phelps is on a month-long multi-city tour with fellow Olympians. Friday evening, Phelps will appear at “Disney’s Swim With The Stars” tour in College Park.
Baltimore County held a nicknaming contest for Phelps in advance of the festivities. The submissions were narrowed down to Towson Titan, Swim Shady, Baltimore Barricuda, Phelpseidon, Swim Dogg, Mach P and Baltimore Shark.
Fans can vote for their favorite at www.co.ba.md.us/Contact/nickname/. The top nickname will be announced on Saturday.
“Congratulations Michael,” a banner along Stevenson Lane has said all week. Phelps is originally from Rodgers Forge, a neighborhood just south of campus.
The record-setting 19-year-old swimmer attended Towson High School before pursuing his Olympic dream full-time.
Phelps will move out of his mother's Towson home in November to follow longtime coach Bob Bowman to Ann Arbor, Mich. He plans to enroll in some college classes.
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