OKLAHOMA CITY-
A tour bus group has named Oklahoma's yearlong centennial celebration as the top event in the United States for 2007, a designation expected to boost tourism as the nation's 46th state marks its 100th year with festivals, exhibits and parades.
The American Bus Association placed Oklahoma's centennial commemoration at the top of its Top 100 Events list, a guide for professional travel planners and the public that highlights events throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Oklahoma plans more than 400 special events, historic reenactments and heritage experiences across the state next year. The celebration begins in November in Tulsa and will continue until Nov. 16, 2007, when the state observes its 100th year of statehood.
"The best of the best is right here in Oklahoma," Pete Pantuso, ABA's president and CEO, said standing beside a shiny black tour bus bedecked with the state centennial's logo. The group represents 300 tour operators and 65 percent of the nation's privately owned buses.
Blake Wade, executive director of the state's Centennial Commission, said 750 centennial projects, including a larger-than-life 45-piece bronze statue depicting the Land Run of 1889, are being readied for what he said will be the largest centennial celebration by a state in U.S. history.
The centennial commemoration will climax on Statehood Day with a re-enactment in Guthrie, Oklahoma's first capital, and a multimedia show in Oklahoma City featuring Oklahoma's theater, film and concert celebrities.
Aside from the Oklahoma centennial, the Top 100 Events list highlights many anniversaries next year, including America's 400th Anniversary Weekend in May as Jamestown, Va., America's first permanent English settlement, commemorates its founding in 1607.
The list's top Canadian event is The Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in July 2007.
The "tattoo" has nothing to do with body art–it's a British term for a military spectacle, and the Halifax event will include more than 2,000 military and nonmilitary performers in a family-oriented show featuring pipes and drums, military and civilian bands, reenactments, dancers and military displays and competitions.
For a complete list of the American Bus Association's Top 100 events for 2007, go to .
