The Jesse White Tumblers leap over a 1,000-pound cheesecake during the 2016 Eli's Cheesecake Festival. View Full Caption Eli's Cheesecake Company

CHICAGO — Eli's Cheesecake Co., 6701 W. Forest Preserve Drive, never lets National Cheesecake Day go by without a fitting celebration.

Continuing a tradition the Dunning mainstay has honored each year since its 1996 move into the neighborhood, Eli's will host a full day of games, performances and free treats with its annual Cheesecake Festival from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

The packed schedule includes performances by Joffrey Ballet tap dancer Tristan Bruns and the Jesse White Tumblers, who will jump over a 1,000-pound cheesecake — only slightly smaller than the mega-cake Eli's wheeled into Taste of Chicago earlier this month.

At 10 a.m., visitors can see a "16-foot long cheesecake-eating raptor" puppet that "stomps and stalks just like the real thing," courtesy of the Field Museum's Jurassic World exhibit, according to Eli's spokeswoman Jennifer Coursey.

Although admission to the festival is free, entrants to a "classic car show" will be asked to donate to the next-door New Horizon Center for the Developmentally Disabled.

Interspersed among all the events will be multiple rounds of "cheesecake bingo," a popular game that lets participants compete for prizes including Eli’s hats, coffee mugs and even whole cheesecakes, Coursey said.

All throughout the day, Eli's chefs will hand out cheesecake samples of myriad flavors, including cookie butter and white chocolate raspberry.

They'll also host an outdoor cookout during lunchtime, selling grilled hotdogs and quarter-pound burgers "with all the fixings" in place of the restaurant's normal sandwich menu, Coursey said.

Proceeds from the festival's classic car show will benefit the New Horizon Center for the Developmentally Disabled. [Eli's Cheesecake Company]