Since school bus transportation is required for the children, entertainment is provided as approximately 90 yellow buses arrive throughout the morning. Entertainment is provided by local school groups performing synchronized drills, choral arrangements and dramatic presentations. Professional entertainment ranges from a bagpiper and military bands to choral groups. Historic characters, portrayed by actors and impersonators, interact with the students. Background information about each character is sent in advance to attending schools and the students learn important facts about each character.
Many students prepare questions to discuss with a specific character.
Both students and impersonators have found the experience very rewarding. Historic characters attending have included Francis Scott Key and his wife, Abraham Lincoln, Mary Pickersgill, Dolley Madison, Francis Bellamy, Harriet Tubman, Uncle Sam, Frederick Douglass and Mary Banneker. Buffalo soldiers have set up an encampment complete with tents, cooking facilities and costumed characters. A grid is marked out on the grassy slope in front of Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine. As children enter the area, they are handed a large red, white or blue cardboard rectangle coordinated with their assigned station in the grid.