BUCKHANNON – The July 2 edition of Festival Fridays will feature a fireworks show, inflatables, several cartoon characters and performances by the Stockert Youth & Community Center Drill Team and Elite Twirlers to celebrate the Fourth of July.
Amanda Hayes, a member of the Buckhannon Fourth of July Committee, attended the June 24 Consolidated Public Works Board meeting to request a street closure and discuss the festivities.
“Cartoon Headquarters has been coming for the past several years,” Hayes said. “They do a percentage donation to Stockert Youth & Community Center; they would like to set up at Jawbone and they have a $10 fee for wrist bands, and then kids can do the inflatables for as long as they want.”
Two of the inflatables they offer are a large obstacle course and a firehouse.
“Stockert couldn’t participate this year, so there’s not going to be any volleyball contest and different things going on across the street,” Hayes said. “We don’t have a dunking booth or the rock-climbing wall, so there’s no need for people to be walking back and forth across the street, so we don’t have to close the street the whole time, just for the twirling performances.”
Hayes said one group will perform at 5:30 p.m. and another at 8 p.m., so she asked the Consolidated Board to close South Florida Street between Main Street and Madison Street. The inflatables will be set up at Jawbone Park at 4 p.m., an hour before Festival Fridays will officially kick off.
Board member CJ Rylands moved to approve their request to close Florida Street from Main Street to Madison Street and Board Nancy Shobe seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
City recorder and information coordinator Randy Sanders said city officials have not set an exact time the fireworks show will start, but he encouraged everyone to converge on Main Street to enjoy the show around dusk.
“The staging area is behind Walgreens, Premier Bank and Citizens Bank of West Virginia, so as in the past, the best areas to see them are around Walgreens and Community Bank parking areas, and you can go back towards the courthouse and Jawbone Park – those are the better parts of the town to see the fireworks,” Sanders said.
