Civil Air Patrol director of aerospace education Glenn Carman helps Ben Stavish, 6, of Mars put together a foam rocket at the Mars Exploration Celebration Friday night.

The Mars Exploration Celebration festival gathered crowds of space enthusiasts to downtown Mars to watch presentations, participate in hands-on science activities and learn about a variety of extraterrestrial topics this weekend.

The festival, previously known as Mars New Year, runs from Aug. 27 to 28, and celebrates the New Year on the planet Mars, which occurs every 687 days.

Previous iterations of the event have drawn NASA speakers to Mars to give presentations. Because of COVID-19 concerns, this year's NASA component was conducted virtually.

Mars Borough Mayor Gregg Hartung said the Mars New Year Committee put in a lot of work to get the festival ready.

“It's been a big undertaking with the presentations shifting from live presentations to remote,” he said. “I have a committee of about 30 people who have helped tremendously in getting this all together. We appreciate those volunteers because, otherwise, this wouldn't have happened.”

Read more in Sunday's Butler Eagle.