Then, at 10:30, comes the day's highlight: a two-hour parade, which will muster at the Manoa Shopping Center and march down Eagle and Darby Roads, rolling past a reviewing stand at the Skatium.
Among the more than 60 entries this year will be floats from numerous civic organizations and churches, a group of bagpipers, and the Archer Eppler Drum and Bugle Corps, English said.
Ten bands, ranging from Irish balladeers to Havertown country singer Kelly Monahan, are scheduled to perform on two stages throughout the day.
Arts and crafts booths will be set up along the parade route, with a food court farther down on Brookline Boulevard. Children's entertainment will also be clustered on Brookline, which English said organizers had renamed ``kiddie city.'' For older youths, the Parks and Recreation Department is sponsoring skateboarding and in-line skating at the middle school.
And if the children get out of control, parents can always suggest alternate activities - perhaps a free flu shot at the Brookline Fire House.
Over its first three years, festival attendance grew from the 3,000 who attended the first parade, put on by the township's Civic Council to boost local pride, to 12,000 in 1996 to almost 20,000 last year, English said.
One sign of success: In just its fourth year, Haverford Township Day is already having its first identity crisis, English said.
``It's gotten to the point that we have to decide whether we want to do a Mummers-type thing,'' he said. ``But I think our goal is to keep it in the community.''
