Kenwood Historic District has spent the last few years working on some major home renovations and upgrading an historic part of Enid.

Now, residents want to show off their hard work, and organizer Becky Cummings said there is no better time to start than during Enid’s annual Cherokee Strip Days.

“We’re a neighborhood again, and that’s what this festival is all about,” Cummings said.

Kenwood neighbors have spent more than a year putting together Kenwood Golden Days 2008 to coincide with Enid’s annual Cherokee Strip Days. The Kenwood celebration will kick off Thursday with some private receptions, and then go public on Friday.

Several events are planned Friday, including the official kickoff in the 400 block of West Elm. Mayor John Criner and City Commissioner Daron Rudy will be on hand. Several vendor booths will open noon to 8 p.m.

A children’s parade will travel from Emerson Junior High School to Leonardo’s Discovery Warehouse at 4 p.m.

A wine tasting will be 5:30-7 p.m. at 519 W. Oak for an admission fee of $10 a person. A dinner is planned afterward for $40 a person.

Kenwood Neighborhood Park will be dedicated at 6 p.m. at West Pine and Madison, with singing from Enid’s fourth-graders and the Enid High School Quartet. Also planned are performances by Katy Mariah and T.J. Clay.

The Simpson Brothers will hold a Wild West Movie Night showing “Showdown at Devil’s Butte.”

On Saturday, Cummings said the focus will be on old-fashioned fun. A kids corral will be held at Kenwood Park 1-4 p.m. and kids can learn to rope and compete in stick horse races. A variety of other old-fashioned games (no batteries required) will finish off the day.

Also included in Saturday activities are vendor booths, a car show noon to 6 p.m., a Friends of the Library book sale noon to 8 p.m. and a high tea and cookbook sale 2 to 5 p.m. at the former Edmund Frantz house, 408 W. Elm. There also will be a praise and worship service at 6:30 p.m. in the 400 block of West Elm.

T.J. Clay will perform a concert afterward, and the Simpson Brothers’ movie “Curse of the Sacred Mountain” will follow the concert.

On Sunday, recitals, lectures and art shows will be held in some historic homes. A choir fest will be 2:30 p.m. in the 400 block of West Elm.

The grand finale of the Kenwood festivities will be at 6 p.m. at David Allen Memorial Ballpark with a national award-winning group of barber shop singers; Mark Harris, Dove Award-winning contemporary Christian artist; and Remedy Drive, a contemporary Christian band.

Cummings said people are invited to come to the events in costume of the time period. She said residents of Kenwood are excited to relive a little history and to show Enid a little bit of the neighborhood quality of the past.

See the Enid News & Eagle’s insert Wednesday for information about Cherokee Strip Days and the Kenwood Golden Days festival.