Every September, the city of Fayetteville throws a birthday party for a man who has been dead for nearly two centuries — and who, in a very real sense, gave the city its name. The guest of honor is the Marquis de Lafayette, the French aristocrat who fought for American independence. And on September 8 through 12, 2026, the Lafayette Society will host the 19th annual Lafayette Birthday Celebration, North Carolina's official observance of the Frenchman's birthday, with a week of lectures, exhibits, tours, and, of course, free cupcakes.
The connection between this small North Carolina city and the French aristocrat runs deeper than a shared name. In 1783, the town was christened Fayetteville — the very first city in the United States to be named in honor of Lafayette. The name endured.
Lafayette himself came to visit in March 1825, during his triumphant "Farewell Tour" of the United States, a yearlong journey through all twenty-four states. The entourage, traveling from Raleigh with an escort of Wake County militia, arrived in Fayetteville in March 1825 to a welcome that bordered on delirium. A contemporary account described rain falling in torrents while the roads for miles were crowded with men on horseback and militia on foot, and the streets filled with ladies in full dress hastening through the streams to approach the General's carriage. Though he stayed barely twenty-four hours, Lafayette was honored with banquets and receptions, reviewed the town's militia companies, inspected the brand-new Lafayette Hotel, and visited the Masonic Lodge. He reunited with Isham Blake, a musician who had served in his headquarters when the young general commanded Patriot forces in Virginia and who had been with him at the surrender of Yorktown in 1781; the two men embraced, and tears dimmed their eyes. He also met Julie Memerell, a young free Black woman described as the only person in town who could converse with him in French. Before departing for South Carolina, Lafayette offered a toast to the town that bore his name: "Fayetteville. May it receive all the encouragements and attain all the prosperity which are anticipated by the fond and grateful wishes of its affectionate and respectful namesake."
The birthday celebration has become a beloved annual tradition. This year's edition, the 19th, unfolds over several days, with nearly every event free and open to the public.
The festivities open on Tuesday, September 8, at Fayetteville Technical Community College, where Joseph Westendorf, the local and state history librarian at Cumberland County Library, will present "The Liberty Point Resolves – Legend, Book, Film." Westendorf and his research team recently published their findings in The Voices of Resolve: The Patriots of Liberty Point, a book about the Liberty Point Resolves, Cumberland County's own predecessor to the Declaration of Independence, signed by brave local Patriots in the run-up to the Revolution. He will be joined by PBS documentary producer Frank Boring, who worked with FTCC students to turn the book into the first documentary film ever made about the Resolves.
The celebration resumes on Friday, September 11, at Davis Memorial Library on the campus of Methodist University, which holds the largest collection of Lafayette memorabilia south of Philadelphia. There, guests can view an exhibit of commemorative souvenirs from Lafayette's 1824–25 Farewell Tour — trinkets and keepsakes that entrepreneurs churned out in such variety and quantity that they rivaled the merchandise of any modern rock star tour. The featured speaker will be Alan Hoffman of New Hampshire, president of the American Friends of Lafayette, who published the first complete English translation of Lafayette in America in 1824–1825, the memoir written by Auguste Levasseur, who accompanied Lafayette on the tour. Hoffman, who calls Lafayette "the noblest, most consistent, most principled and, in many respects, the most modern of all our Founding Fathers," will explain why the Frenchman's visit still matters two centuries later. A reception beforehand will feature appetizers inspired by recipes from Mary Randolph's 1824 The Virginia House-Wife, the first cookbook published in the United States — dishes Lafayette himself would likely have been served two hundred years ago.
Saturday, September 12, brings the centerpiece of the week. In the morning, Major Bruce Daws, the beloved local historian of the Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry, will lead a guided tour of the Lafayette Trail, starting with complimentary coffee and croissants at the Light Infantry Museum on Burgess Street. Guests will visit the places Lafayette saw in 1825, including a private tour of the Phoenix Masonic Lodge and photo opportunities with his carriage. Tickets for the tour are $20, space is limited, and reservations are required. Then, starting at 2 p.m., the public is invited to City Center Gallery & Books on Hay Street for free birthday cupcakes, while they last, and an informal "Chat with an Author" with Hoffman, who will discuss Lafayette and the enduring struggle for human rights and democratic governments — and how his life and ideals speak to the issues of today.
The celebration is more than a history lesson; it is an act of civic memory. The Lafayette Society's mission is to promote awareness of Lafayette's contributions to American freedom and to honor his generosity, patriotism, leadership, opposition to slavery, and support for human rights. That legacy has taken on fresh resonance in recent years. In 2024 and 2025, cities across the nation reenacted the bicentennial of the Farewell Tour, and Fayetteville marked the occasion in March 2025 with a grand return of Lafayette himself, complete with a ball, a welcome at Cross Creek Park, and a farewell dinner. The society has also used the birthday celebration to tell the stories of those Lafayette touched, including James Armistead, the enslaved Virginian who served as a double agent during the Revolutionary War and whom Lafayette helped win his freedom; Armistead adopted Lafayette's last name in tribute, and in 2025 the society's storyteller, Dr. Sonny Kelly, brought his story to life.
For a city that owes its very name to a Frenchman who visited for barely a day, the annual birthday party is a way of keeping faith with the past — and with the ideals Lafayette embodied. Each September, it repays the honor.