Food, music, fireworks and plenty of red, white and blue on America’s 250th

Food, music and plenty of red, white and blue are available Saturday across America at attractions large and small celebrating the nation's 250th birthday.

From small towns to large, the gatherings have two guaranteed promises – plenty of patriotism long before the evening fireworks, and an awful lot of heat.

Inland temperatures on the East Coast are forecast to be dangerously hot with a heat index greater than 100 degrees.

In the nation's capital, Americans can attend multiple events on the National Mall Saturday, culminating in what has been termed the "capstone event" of the America 250 celebrations – the Salute to America Celebration.

It’s a roughly four-hour program ending with a fireworks display that will attempt to surpass the Guinness Book of World Records' current largest-recorded show, according to Freedom 250.

Guests can enter the event at 5 p.m. on Saturday. The program is set to begin at 7 p.m.

The event will also include flyovers from the Navy’s Blue Angels, the Air Force’s Thunderbirds, and a team of F-22 Raptors, as well as performances from marching bands, tributes to service members, and other performances representing 250 years of American music across genres.

President Trump is scheduled to speak at 9:45 p.m. He has promised a characteristic "really long" speech, despite the heat.

The 40-minute fireworks show is scheduled to begin at 10:30 p.m., featuring more than 850,000 fireworks and pyrotechnic effects that will be launched from ten sites, including the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and eight barges on the Potomac River.

The show will be about twice as long in duration as the typical fireworks spectacle on the Mall, even though the typical display has closer to 20,000 fireworks, according to news reports.

Guests can also attend the annual reading of the Declaration of Independence, the National Independence Day Parade, and the Great American State Fair.

It's possible the heat could affect Saturday's events. The Great American State Fair closed for hours on Friday because of triple-digit temperatures.

In several ports, Sail 250 is holding a global gathering of tall ships and military ships. More than 60 ships in an international fleet are participating.

America 250’s Sail 250 celebrations began in New Orleans Memorial Day weekend. International ships first ported in the Gulf city from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, the Netherlands, Peru, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Uruguay, The Center Square reported.

Sail 250 ships next celebrated in Norfolk, Virginia, and Baltimore, Maryland. They are celebrating July 4 in New York City. Celebrations will conclude in Boston, the birthplace of the American Revolution, from July 11-16.

In North Carolina, Freedom Fest is an all-day event around the State Capitol in downtown Raleigh. Tift Merritt and Rissi Palmer are featured musicians, with the 82nd Airborne Brass Quintet also on hand. Historical exhibits and food trucks will be plentiful.