Has it really been 41 years since Wake Forest first celebrated the Fourth of July with a fireworks show, a children’s parade and games for everyone in the field behind the elementary school?
But it is still fresh and new each year. It will be again this year when you get a lump in your throat as “The Star-Spangled Banner” is played and we stand to salute the flag. It will be again this year as the first “Ooooh!” goes up from the crowd with the first rockets in the fireworks show. It will be again this year when everyone is madly waving from the North Main sidewalks as the crowd of children, parents and pets stream past.
It does begin with a bang – the noise from the fireworks. The fireworks and stadium show will be held Thursday, July 3, in Trentini Stadium on the Wake Forest High School campus on Stadium Drive. The gates will open at 5:30 p.m. Parking is available on the school grounds and nearby designated areas.
The Band of Oz, the perennial favorite, will take the stage at 6:30 p.m. after performances by the Apples and Airplanes Band and the Friendship Chapel Choir. Don Carrington’s Skydive Team will drop in at some point. The fireworks show promises to be bigger and better than ever.
Admission is $5 with children 6 and younger admitted free. You must use cash at the gate and at the concession stand. Tickets are available now, five tickets for $20, at The Wake Forest Weekly newspaper office, Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce, NC General Stores, For Old Times Sake Antiques, All About Hair and Nails, Aloha Tan and the Town & Country Hardware in Gateway Commons.
Alcoholic beverages, smoking and pets are not allowed on the school property. You may set up lawn chairs on the concrete areas inside the stadium; only blankets are allowed on the rubberized track surface. Baskets and coolers will be inspected before they are allowed inside the stadium.
The next morning, July 4, children, parents and pets will line up beginning at 10 a.m. at the intersection of North Main Street and Juniper Avenue near the Wake Forest College Birthplace and Historical Museum.
Everything about the Children’s Parade is free, including the balloons and the later activities in Holding Park.
The parade will wend down North Main Street and then around the seminary campus to end at Holding Park where there will be Art-in-the-Park and Games-in-the-Park from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Children will be able to create a variety of arts and crafts projects while the games include sack races, a watermelon seed-spitting contest and a pie eating contest.
The Fourth of July Celebration is – and always has been – a volunteer-only organization which relies on the gate receipts from the previous year, a contribution from the Town of Wake Forest and generous donations and contributions from local individuals and businesses.
The committee still can use volunteers for the two days of activities. Find the Wake Forest Fourth of July Celebration on Facebook and email the group at wfjuly4th@aol.com if you can lend a hand with ticket sales or concessions.
The Town of Wake Forest provides information about the events, including maps of the festivities and a smart phone application for the latest updates. Visit www.wakeforestnc.gov/july4.aspx.
Wake Forest Town Hall will be closed on Friday, July 4, and the Wake Forest bus service – the Wake Forest to Raleigh express service and the Wake Forest Loop – will not be provided on Friday but both will resume normal schedules on Monday, July 7.
Garbage and recycling collection will remain the same as usual Monday through Thursday, but Friday’s collection will be done on Saturday, July 5.
