Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts will descend on Freeport en masse this weekend, as the first Boy Scouts of America Scout-O-Rama highlights L.L. Bean Camping Weekend.

As many as 1,000 Scouts and troop leaders are expected to march in a Saturday morning parade. Following the parade, they will fan out in and around L.L. Bean Discovery Park for events and demonstrations. Many of the Scouts – an estimated 800 – will be camping out Friday and Saturday nights at Recompence Campground, on the premises of Wolfe’s Neck Farm.

“This is a first in Maine,” said Matt Randall, program director for the Pine Tree Council, Boy Scouts of America. “We’ve never had anything like this before.”

The L.L. Bean Camping Weekend begins on Friday at 7 p.m. as Ed Webster, renowned mountaineer, gives a talk on his successful attempt to establish a new route up Mount Everest. Entitled “Everest the Hard Way,” Webster will discuss the new route up the east face of Everest he and his three companions successfully established, with no Sherpa support, no radios and no bottled oxygen. The weekend continues with a tent city, showcasing several types of fully set-up campsites, a full roster of seminars and demonstrations, interactive adventures and activities and more.

Eric Tarbox, Pine Tree Council, Scout executive, credited L.L. Bean with the concept of the grand parade, which begins at 9 a.m. Saturday. The throng of Scouts and their leaders will proceed from the Grove Street parking lot, head up Main Street, split in two in front of the L.L. Bean Hunting & Fishing Store, and stop at Discovery Park.

“L.L. Bean has been wonderful – really providing a lot of input and logistics and a lot of neat things to do,” Tarbox said. “They got permission to close the streets.”

Randall said the Scouts and their leaders who will be camping at Recompence will arrive sometime Friday afternoon.

“It serves as our spring campout for the Scouts in our council, and then the second point is the showcasing of scouting to the public on Saturday,” Randall said. “Anyone who goes into the store can become acquainted with us. Our goal is to showcase to the public what scouting is. Families can check them out, and people will see the visuals of scouting.”

Randall said that Scouts from throughout the state will attend Scout-O-Rama. Regular Boy Scouts, teen-age divisions, co-ed divisions and Cub Scouts will take part in what Randall called “venturing” from 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday at Discovery Park. A committee of volunteers for Bean, Scout leaders and the Freeport Fire Department all will work together to manage the group, he said. The parade will get everyone primed.

“With all the uniforms and the flags, it will be quite a sight,” Randall said. “The Freeport Explorer Post is going to help with the parade. It’s going to be a sea of Scouts, led by a fife-and-drum corps.”

All L.L. Bean Camping Weekend events are free unless otherwise noted. For more information call 877-755-2326 or go to www.llbean.com/freeport for a full schedule of events.