BANGOR – Organizers are expecting this weekend’s peace rally to be the largest in Maine since 3,000 people gathered in 2002 in Augusta to protest the war in Iraq.

The rally will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Bangor waterfront.

“This culminates the weeklong activities around the Declaration of Peace,” Ilze Petersons of the Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine said Wednesday.

The purpose of the march and rally is to give a voice to those who want to see the troops come home and resources spent on war devoted to health care, education and environmental sustainability.

“We thought that what we needed was an opportunity for the nearly 70 percent who oppose the war to come out and express themselves,” Petersons said.

The rally will feature masters of ceremonies Amy Browne and Meredith DeFrancesco from WERU radio station, Doug Rawlings from Veterans for Peace, singer and songwriter Gray Cox, the Voice of Peace choir, theater troop Improv Acadia, and Romulus Rex, Rock Fusion.

A permitted march through the streets from Waterfront Park to the federal building and back will be held at 2 p.m. to underscore the need for an end to the occupation of Iraq.

Banners and floats on the stop-the-war theme are welcome. Anyone interested should visit the Web site at www.stopthewar2006.org or contact the Peace & Justice Center at 942-9343.