The Navy’s widely acclaimed Fleet Forces Band will bring its annual Holiday Concert to Smithfield on Saturday, Dec. 8.

The 7 p.m. performance at The Smithfield Center is free to the public. It will cap a busy day of Christmas activities in Smithfield, beginning with the Kiwanis Club’s annual Breakfast with Santa at The Smithfield Center and including the community’s ever-popular Christmas Parade.

The Fleet Forces Band has brought its holiday concert to Smithfield numerous times and has drawn a large and appreciative audience with each visit.

This year’s concert will include a number of familiar holiday songs, including “Sleigh Ride,” “Christmas Time is Here,” “Chanukah Celebration,” “12 Days of Christmas,” “Eight Days of Hanukkah,” and a Christmas sing-a-long. 

The Fleet Forces Band is known as “the finest of the fleet,” and is the musical representative for the Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk.  The band provides musical support for ships, military bases, foreign dignitaries and community events throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Ohio River Valley areas of the United States, and also regularly deploys to Central and South America. 

The band is under the direction of Lt. Gregory Fritz and is staffed by some of the Navy’s finest and most talented musicians.

The Smithfield performance is being sponsored by Columbia Gas Company, which offered to assist with a concert in appreciation for the town’s patience during the company’s installation of a new gas line early this year.