Thirty years of Together Days may seem like a reason to bring out all the stops at this year’s celebration of community in Westbrook.

But according to those who run it, the core purpose of Together Days is to reconnect with old friends, and that will continue to be the highlight of the two-day event, even on its 30-year anniversary next weekend.

Mayor Bruce Chuluda, who is the chairman of the committee that organized this year’s celebration, said it was hard to get people to help out. As a member of the Chamber of Commerce, a city councilor or as mayor, Chuluda said, he’s stayed involved in the planning of the event, with its sparse budget, over the past 15 years for the simple reason of making sure the tradition lives on.

“Same ol’, same ol’, but always a good time,” he said of what people can expect from this year’s Together Days.

The Westbrook City Band and Motor Booty Affair will kick off the event in Riverbank Park on Friday, June 5. As is the tradition, the Boy Scouts’ pancake breakfast will get things going again early Saturday. At 10 a.m., the parade begins, with Mike Sanphy, who retired last year after 40 years with the Westbrook Police Department, serving as grand marshal.

Continuous entertainment on stage, starting at noon and lasting through the evening, will include performances from an a capella group, the high school jazz combo and chamber singers, a dance company and a swing band.

Rides, duck races, a petting zoo and dozens of food vendors will be set up throughout the day, and, again this year, Idexx Laboratories has come through to sponsor fireworks Saturday night, marking the end of the event with a bang.

Some residents could leave with more than memories and a belly full of fried food. This year’s auction will offer all kinds of prizes, from oil changes and restaurant gift certificates to loads of gravel and aggregate donated by local excavating companies.

As residents clear their calendars and get excited to see who will appear from their past this year, the city’s public services department is already hard at work, putting the nuts and bolts of the event in place.

Arty Ledoux, deputy director of public services, said Tuesday he’ll be putting up message boards on either side of the city to advertise the event. During the week, his employees will help set up the stage. And while the first wave of residents comes through the park Friday, public services will already be there, keeping the grounds clean and ready to react if anything goes wrong.

Over the years, Ledoux said, he remembers only a couple of mishaps, but nothing major. One year, he said, the fireworks were exploding so low to the ground that no one could see them behind the trees. And, of course, there are the dreaded rain-outs.

Mostly, for Ledoux and his employees, who act as the backbone of the event, it’s the same thing every year. They’re up early Saturday, barricading the streets for the parade and setting up handicapped parking in front of the park, and they stick around until after it’s all over, picking up the wrappers and cups left behind.

But that doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy themselves, too.

Ledoux, who grew up in Westbrook, said he always sees a face he hasn’t seen in years at each Together Days.

“They just stumble back in,” he said.