The festivities are still being planned, but organizers of Chandler’s 50th anniversary celebration on July 10 have already lined up a 13-hour event that features a fireworks presentation, hot-air baloon launch, antique car show, and a disk golf tournament.

“We have a lot going on,” city secretary Shirley Parmer said. “The antique car show starts at 4, we’ll have a 1950s and 60s DJ coming and, of course, Tony Douglas will be here. We’ll have entertainment throughout the event, and more and more people are calling for booths every day.”

Booths are scheduled to open at 9 a.m., and music from Rick Daily is scheduled throughout the day. The balloon launch is planned for 5 p.m., and Douglas is set to perform three hours later. A fireworks presentation will end the celebration.

Money raised during CityFest will help finance the creation of a city museum, the contents of which are housed at the Chandler Public library, a branch of the Henderson County Clint W. Murchison Memorial Library.

Originally housed in a book mobile, the Chandler branch was moved to Broad Street in 1983 and relocated again 13 years later to its current building at 900 State Highway 31. It is expected to become a city department by Chandler’s next fiscal year.

CityFest marks 50 years of Chandler’s incorporation.

Its history, though, dates to 1880 when the Texas and St. Louis Railway established a station on land donated about 31 years earlier by Alphonso Chandler, for which the town was renamed. It was originally called Stillwater.

Officials haven’t decided whether to expand the library or move the historical collection, which includes Sen. Ralph Yarborough, Jackie Kennedy, and other collections and memorabilia.

The late Yarborough, a Democratic senator, was born in Chandler in 1903. He taught school in Henderson County, practiced law in El Paso and Austin, was a Texas judge and assistant attorney general, a World War II veteran in the U.S. Army, and an author.

Yarborough was in Kennedy’s motorcade during the president’s assassination in 1963 in Dallas.

Here is a tentative lineup for July 10:

7 a.m. — Vendor Setup 8 a.m. — Vendor Setup 9 a.m. — Vendors/Booths Open; Bouncy Houses/ Train Open; Rick Daily Music

10 a.m. — Rick Daily Music

11 a.m. — Barbeque Sales Begin; Rick Daily Music; Disk Golf Tournament begins

12 p.m. — Mayor Proclamation; Previous Mayor Presentation; Rick Daily Music

1 p.m. — Rick Daily Music; Auction Begins

2 p.m. — Rick Daily Music

3 p.m. — Rick Daily Music

4 p.m. — Car Show; 1950’s & 1960’s Cruisers Music

5 p.m. –—Booths/Vendors Closed; Balloon launch; 1950’s & 1960’s Cruisers Music

6 p.m. — 1950’s & 1960’s Cruisers Music

7 p.m. — Street Dance Begins; Tony Douglas & The Shrimpers

8 p.m. — Tony Douglas & The Shrimpers

9 p.m. — Tony Douglas & The Shrimpers

10 p.m. – Street Dance Ends; Fireworks Presentation