The Eigth Annual Funtastic Fourth Celebration begins Saturday at 10 a.m. in the Heart of the City Park and will run until 10 p.m. with live music, food, vendors, horseback rides, train rides, a dunking booth, jumpers for the kids, water slides and a washer tournament.

Allan Johnson, president of the DRA, has chosen to continue with the theme of “God and Country” that has been promoted in the past few years, so all of the bands chosen to perform will reflect this.

 “We decided to go in that direction because we believe that God gave us this great country, and the country as a whole doesn't appreciate Him for it,” Johnson said. “We'd like to set a standard of thanking the Lord for giving us this great country that we live in.”

 After opening remarks, Bryan Burk will perform first for 30 minutes, followed by Southern Charm for 45 minutes starting at 11 a.m. Next on at noon will be The Coble Family, followed by One Moment at 1 p.m., KdB at 2 p.m., Crimson Everburn at 3 p.m. and David at 4 p.m., all for 45 minutes. According to the set list provided by the DRA, there will be a 30-minute patriotic program beginning at 4:45 p.m. before Burk performs again at 5:15. At 6 p.m. Clearly Spoken will perform before the first of the two headlining acts takes the stage at 7 p.m.

The first headliner is Capital Lights, and while they may not be classified under the Christian genre, one of the Oklahoma-based band's most popular songs, “Return,” highly advocates their personal Christian beliefs. They have one CD titled “This is an Outrage!” and three singles currently available. Capital Lights will play for an hour before turning the stage over to The Afters at 8:30 p.m.

The Afters, a band out of Dallas with two CDs out, will conduct the final performance of the night, playing for a little more than an hour. According to their Web site, their song “Beautiful Love” off their first album, “I Wish We All Could Win,” was the most downloaded song off the iTunes inspirational charts in 2006. The 2008 Year End Charts on the Radio & Records Web site ranks the title song of their sophomore album “Never Going Back to OK” as No. 1.

“Our music lineup this year is, without question, the best we've ever had,” said Johnson, and he is also promising professional stage and sound to complete the package. “We put on an awesome show last year, and we hope to make this one just a good as the last one,” said Johnson.

Sign-ups for teams wishing to participate in the washer tournament will begin around 1 p.m. Johnson said they usually get around 25 teams interested in participating.

Johnson also said they are looking for volunteers to help with things like keeping the area cleaned up during the day, working the information booth and other such activities. He hopes that all of the churches in town will come out to support the event.

Concerns have been raised about construction posing a problem for the event, but Johnson was promised that it would not be an issue. “They may not be done with the construction, but it won't affect the event. Everything should be business as usual.”

For more information, call Johnson at 267-6278, Kalea Watson at Jaguar Bearing Supply at 263-0400 or check out their MySpace at myspace.com/funtasticfourth.