MARQUETTE — This year’s iconic Fourth of July festival at Marquette’s Mattson Lower Harbor Park will offer an exciting array of food, live music, family fun and celebration under a new banner.

For more than 40 years, the Marquette County Exchange Club has sponsored the International Food Fest over the holiday at the park — earning more than $1 million for grants to local organizations — with this year’s event rebranded as the Freedom Fest.

“The food fest has been our trademark fundraiser over the past four decades, and we decided its name should better reflect what we as Americans are celebrating on this foremost of all patriotic holidays,” said Geno Angeli, Exchange Club president. “It will offer the same top-notch food, live music, family-oriented fun and more that local residents and visitors to the area have come to expect.”

The festival will run from noon to 10 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday at the park, located along the Lower Harbor in downtown Marquette. There is no charge to enter the festival grounds.

In addition to live music generated by some of the top local musicians, the food fest will include a wide variety of food items by nearly a dozen vendors, kids games and attractions by Double Trouble Entertainment, and a new-look beverage tent. In addition to the usual alcoholic drinks, the tent will offer nonalcoholic beverages that will include a selection of refreshing “mocktails” concocted by club members.

Funds generated by the festival go toward grants that are awarded annually to about 40 local organizations, including youth groups, veterans and senior citizen organizations and such charitable efforts as St. Vincent de Paul and the Salvation Army.