BATH — Bath Fest has long been a celebration of North Carolina’s first town. This year, however, the street festival’s organizers are celebrating its 10^th year and its place in history as North Carolina’s first port.

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Bath will be steeped in recreated history with maritime encampments, rope making and bookbinding demonstrations and a visiting exhibit from the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort, in addition to artists, vendors, storytellers, dramatic readings and barbecue and bake sale fundraisers by local civic organizations. South Main Street to Bonner’s Point, around the corner on Front Street, interactive displays will bring the past alive, according to Pheobe Wahab, a Bath Fest committee member.

A former environmental educator with Goose Creek State Park, Wahab believes hands-on history is the way to ensure that young ones recognize the importance of North Carolina’s first port.

“Get their attention first and get them involved and hopefully they’ll learn something as kind of byproduct,” Wahab said. “When I was doing environmental education they called it experiential learning. It’s a much more engaging approach.”

At Bonner’s Point, the Devil Men of Cape Fear’s encampment will be lesson in living history of those who made their lives and living on the water, while representatives from the Naval Rope Works in Suffolk, Va., will practice the past art of making rope by hand.

“What they do is make rope the way it was made in 1705. This group really expands on what rope works meant to a maritime village like Bath,” Wahab said.

For sailors three centuries ago, rope had many purposes, from being the means through which wind was harnessed via sails, to lashing down cargo, to being hammered between ships’ planking to make a vessel watertight, Wahab said.

Other children’s events include the “Life of a Sailor” exhibit, where kids can dress up like a sailor of old, and a fossil dig, courtesy of the Aurora Fossil Museum and its staff who will be on hand to identify fossils found.

Throughout the festival, Bath Elementary School will have a strong presence, with its band entertaining at the Carrow House on Front Street from 10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.; the BES chorus performing from 10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.; and at 1 p.m., an awards presentation for the school’s art show, the artwork of which makes for a colorful patchwork of the Bonner House fence. The local 4-H club will add rabbits and chickens to the festive event, while Cut-Throat Croquet Tournament competitors will raise scholarship money to send a student to Beaufort County Community College.

For organizers, the festival that started as more of community block party has evolved to a day where visitors and residents alike can step back in time.

“It’s very small town America, but it’s showing the best of small town America,” Wahab said.

For more information about Bath Fest or the Cut-Throat Croquet Tournament, visit www.bathfest.com.