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"I think it's that surprise," says Winder, recreation specialist for the City of Gaithersburg. "What's going to come down the street next? You have horses, balloons, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, elected officials: Everybody comes, everybody takes part!"

Parades, according to Winder, "are just exciting in and of themselves. I don't care if they're short or long; it's like a big block party."

Gaithersburg's parade, for the record, is long. It has to be, what with all the marching bands and dance companies and fire engines and clowns. It's also long-standing: This Monday marks the 70th year of marching through Olde Towne to celebrate September's start. Labor Day itself is a bit older than that, starting off as a celebration in honor of the working class in 1882 New York and certified a federal holiday by Congress two years later.

"Labor Day is for workers," as Winder observes. "You come and you celebrate; that's what it's all about."

This year, she says, there are some new participants, like the Maryland Nighthawks basketball team.

"Channel 9's Kim Martucci is going to be our emcee," Winder says. "And we have Bolivian dancers – very cheerful and entertaining — and the Tai Yim lion dancers.

"We always have the big balloons," she adds. "They're popular, but I think it's the community involvement everybody looks forward to."

Labor of art

There's a similar feeling on the other side of the county at the Kensington Labor Day parade. But while Gaithersburg gets its Labor Day groove on with antique highwheeler bicycles and fabulously costumed African drummers, Kensington rounds out its parade of marching bands, equestrian groups and circus performers with an ongoing art festival.

"Kensington likes to promote the arts," says Debra Halprin, chair of this weekend's "Paint the Town" Art Show. "The art festival began in 1987; they thought that an art show would be a fabulous event to hold after the parade."

But over the past decade, the art show has grown in popularity and expanded to three days. This year, world-renowned artist and Frederick resident Nicholas Simmons will be on hand to judge and speak.

"It'll be exciting to hear what he has to say about the pieces in the show," says Halprin. "What he liked and why."

Simmons will speak on Saturday, which is also the day of what Halprin calls "a show within a show: the ‘Paint The Town' plein air event."

Artists register at 9 a.m. to take part, signing up and heading out to the streets of Kensington to paint "en plein air," out in the open, until 3 p.m.

"They just go out and paint what they see," Halprin says. "Then the works are judged and sold."

So after Saturday's outdoor paint-athon, and after the Saturday evening reception with Simmons, and after art lovers come by on Sunday, parade-goers still have a chance to see and buy art on Monday right after the parade.

"On Saturday and Sunday, people come for the art," Halprin says. "On Monday, people come for the parade, and see the art. Some of our volunteers walk in the parade carrying big paintbrushes and the MCAA banner."

Either way, she adds, "people are becoming more aware of the show."

Celtic flavor

A Labor Day art show is the main event at Glen Echo Park, too – the 38th annual, featuring work from more than 200 artists of all ages. This show has a twist, literally, because it comes with a celebration of traditional Irish music and dance.

Plein ‘Eire,' anyone?

"It's a three-day thing," says Zan McLeod, the Bethesda artist who performs, composes, arranges and produces Celtic music. "Just traditional stuff – and we have some of the best people in the area coming to perform."

The list includes McLeod plus Billy McComiskey, Mitch Fanning, Jesse Winch and family, Brian Gaffney, Tina Eck and Betsy O'Malley. Also on hand will be young dancers from the Culkin School of Traditional Irish Dance, and a Washington area youth Irish fiddle group that goes by the blarney-tastic name Pete Moss & the Bog Band.

"We did this last year for a trial run," says McLeod. "We got, basically, the local, traditional Irish players, not the rock and rollers or the bar musicians. It's music for Irish dancing: ceili dancing, jigs and reels."

That's how McLeod likes it. He's American. "My Celtic side is mostly Scottish," he says, "but I've always liked the Irish music better." Inspired by bands like the Chieftains, Da Danaan, Planxty and the Bothy Band, he began playing in the late 1970s.

"There was no money in Irish music then, even in Ireland," he says. "You had to just love it."

And love it he did – and does. McLeod – and the Glen Echo Partnership for the Arts, which sponsors both events — expects that music and art will work together to inspire visitors on this end-of-summer weekend.

The City of Gaithersburg's 70th annual Labor Day Parade kicks off at 1 p.m. Monday and winds through the streets of Olde Towne Gaithersburg, including East Diamond and Russell avenues. Admission is free. Free parking is available in the Olde Towne garage, located at the corner of Olde Towne and South Summit Avenue. Handicap parking is located behind the Victor Litz store on the north side of Diamond Avenue, and behind the Shell station on South Summit Avenue. A shuttle bus will be provided from the Lakeforest Shopping Center transit station to Gaithersburg Middle School beginning at noon. Call 301-258-6350 or visit www.gaithersburgmd.gov.

The 38th annual Labor Day Art Show takes place Saturday through Monday, noon to 6 p.m., with an Opening Reception on Friday, 7 to 9 p.m. in Glen Echo Park, 7300 MacArthur Blvd. The Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture and The Irish Inn at Glen Echo will present a wide variety of Irish musicians and dancers on Saturday through Monday from 1 to 5 p.m. in the park's Bumper Car Pavilion.

Admission is free. Call 301-634-2231 or visit www.glenechopark.org.

The 41st annual Labor Day Parade kicks off at 9 a.m. Monday at St. Paul's Street and Plyers Mill Road. The festival follows along Howard and Armory avenues.

The Paint the Town art show takes place at the Kensington Town Hall & Armory, 3710 Mitchell St., on Saturday and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m., and Monday, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a reception and awards ceremony on Saturday, 6 to 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. Call 301-942-9254.