Over the holiday weekend, Garrison Keillor and the gang behind “A Prairie Home Companion” are returning home to Macalester College, the site of the show’s very first broadcast nearly 40 years ago on July 6, 1974. Over the course of its hugely successful four-decade run, the locally produced public radio show has become a Midwestern cultural touchstone, broadcast around the country on 600 public radio stations and heard by more than four million listeners every week.

“A Prairie Home Companion” is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a three-day festival in and around Macalester’s campus, from Friday, July 4 through Sunday, July 6, with a host of activities and performances, both ticketed and free, happening throughout the weekend on five different stages, indoors and out.

Garrison Keillor. Photo: Eric Hageness © Prairie Home Productions/American Public Media

Saturday’s main event, a special three-hour anniversary broadcast, is now sold out, but visitors will be able to hear the proceedings in real time by way of speakers set up throughout the festival. Some lawn seats still remain for the concert and sing-along scheduled for July 4 – “40 Years, 40 Songs” – in honor of the music of “A Prairie Home Companion.” Friday’s concert will include performances by “a stellar assortment of guests” drawn from the 50-some friends of the show invited to participate in the weekend’s events, as well as show regulars Garrison Keillor, Rich Dworsky and The Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band.

Keillor on stage for the show in the 1970s. © Prairie Home Productions/American Public Media

In keeping with the anniversary theme, there will also be 40 free things to see, hear and do through the weekend including a community sing-along with Keillor on Sunday, a “Picking and Singing Jamboree,” a recipe exchange, food and beer garden, and a series of concerts and performances on the festival grounds throughout the weekend. The children’s area promises “face painting, hula hooping, meeting the Minnesota Historical Society’s History Hound, and the partaking in the Minnesota Children’s Museum Imagination Playground.”

The 40th Anniversary Celebration for “A Prairie Home Companion” will take place Friday July 4, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday July 5, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday July 6, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Macalester College, 1600 Grand Ave., St. Paul. Many of the anniversary festival events are free and open to the public. Find ticket information for the concert, “40 Years, 40 Songs,” and a full schedule of events and featured guests online at www.prairiehome.org.