Fifteen thousand people are expected to converge at Capitol Hill’s Eastern Market this Sunday to mark the 40th Annual Friendship House Market Day festival.

The daylong event — lasting from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. — will feature a cornucopia of food, games, craft vendors, live music, children’s rides and health screenings.

The celebration will kick off at 11 a.m. with a children’s parade beginning at Sixth Street and South Carolina Avenue Southeast. Participants include the Friendship Edison Chamberlain Campus Drum Corps, the Eastern Senior High School Marching Band and the inimitable Chubzzy the Clown.

Throughout the day, three stages will present entertainment. Lineup highlights from the main stage — located at C and Seventh streets Southeast — include Bill Burke’s touch guitar sounds at 11 a.m., alternative-rockers The Saucers at 2 p.m., and Philadelphia-based Tangible Truth, a neo-soul band at 4 p.m.

A stage at North Carolina Avenue and Seventh Street Southeast will feature youth hip-hop act The Midnight Forum Performers, as well as poetry readings and dance music. And a children’s stage at South Carolina Avenue and Seventh Street Southeast will showcase the talents of Youth in Praise and the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop Gospel Choir, among others.

This year’s theme, “Children, The Heartbeat of Our Nation,” was selected “because children are the key to this country,” said A. Jerry Haley, a spokesman for Friendship House.

In conjunction with Market Day, Friendship House will host an Art Show and Silent Auction at 8 p.m. Friday in the Washington Court Hotel. Tickets are $60.

Market Day is free, but donations will be accepted. Proceeds benefit the education and social service programs of Friendship House, which include Friendship Edison Public Charter School and Friendship Food Service Systems. For more information, call Haley at (202) 675-9242. The rain date is May 18.