Live music on Main Street, a waterfront cookout, a chance to meet visiting NFL players — it’s an experience that can only be found here as two favorite local events collide in downtown Washington today.

From 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., the public is invited to a community cookout in Festival Park — special guests include former NFL wide receiver, and co-host of the event, Terrance Copper, along with 12 other pro players: Giants’ Steven Baker, Colts’ Shaun Draughn, Jets’ David Garrard, Cowboys’ Dwayne Harris, Jamar Newsome and Vincent Smith, Ravens’ Vonta Leach, Titans’ Dexter McCluster, Chargers’ Willie Smith, ECU Pirates’ alumni Marvin Townes and Donald Whitehead, and former NFL defensive back Jason Horton.

Overlapping the Festival Park event, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. street musicians will take over Main Street for the once-a-month mini music festival Music in the Streets, where acts gather to perform and music lovers gather to listen.

With the two events, Washington Police Chief Stacy Drakeford and Community Outreach Coordinator Kimberly Grimes are planning for a big crowd.

“It’s going to work all together,” Grimes said. “Now it would only work better if the weather cooperated.”

Touted as “rain or shine,” the community cookout and NFL “meet and greet” is part of a bigger package put together by Washington Police and Fire Services and Copper, a Washington native. Saturday, the sports-based festivities continue at Washington High School with a football camp from 8 a.m. to noon, followed by a basketball camp from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., featuring local coach John Lampkins, and overseas pro players Ralph Biggs and Cor-j Cox — also from Washington. The camps are free for any child, male or female, ages 7 to 17 years old. All that’s needed is to register, Grimes said, adding that last year’s football camp drew between 200 to 250 kids to the WHS field.

While the spotlight may be on the star power of the professional sports players, the “2014 Pros Weekend” gives other, more accessible, professionals a chance to make a connection with the public: Drakeford said the majority of employees with Washington Police and Fire services will be taking part in the weekend’s festivities.

“It brings the community together. We’ve all got different jobs, but it shows the kids that with hard work, they can do pretty much whatever they want to do,” said Lt. Robbie Taylor, Washington’s Fire-Rescue-EMS.

“It’s a very positive way to give back to the community — to interact with them and build relationships,” said WPD Officer Corey Rogerson.

Rogerson has participated in the Pros Weekend before, predominantly as one of the standout players on the Washington Police and Fire Services basketball team that took on the NFL players for the past two years. This year, the highly competitive exhibition game was dropped off the schedule of events due to potential for injury on both sides, Drakeford said.

But Rogerson said he remembers being in the shoes of the many young people who will be attending the weekend events.

“When I was a kid, I wanted to be a professional athlete, but I wanted to be a police officer too,” Rogerson said. “Now I’m a police officer.”

Rogerson said that law enforcement’s and emergency personnel’s presence this weekend is about being just as much of a role model to children as professional athletes. It’s a role that has earned Copper’s admiration.

“The police department, especially Kim Grimes and the chief — they do an awesome job in the community, not just this football camp,” Copper said.

Copper participates in several NFL camps every summer, and in Washington, the community participation is unprecedented — he said he’s never seen law enforcement get involved in camps elsewhere.

Law enforcement, volunteer organizations, local businesses are all pitching in to the effort, Drakeford said.

“Without those people, what we are trying to do would not come to fruition,” Drakeford said.

It’s donations from the community, for the community, that allow for a public cookout, meals for the camps, and every camp participant to walk away with a football or basketball backpack outfitted with a camp T-shirt and water bottle — what amounts to a take-home souvenir of a once-in-a-lifetime experience.