Jessi Goulding sat in a camping chair near the city of Cumming’s Veterans’ Memorial on Monday night surrounded by family and friends. She was one of the tens of thousands to come downtown on Monday evening to let kids run around and play, sit on blankets and enjoy one of the Cumming’s favorite traditions.

It wasn’t Independence Day, but it was close. 

“We love it; it builds community and is a great opportunity to celebrate the Fourth,” said Goulding, who said she had been coming for more than 10 years. “I like [that it is held on the 3rd] because it allows for two separate celebrations.”

The city of Cumming hosted its annual Fourth of July festivities on Monday evening at Cumming Fairgrounds, meaning lots of food, families and, of course, fireworks.

“It went great,” said Dave Horton, fairgrounds administrator. “We had some weather we thought was going to come in on top of us and it went just north of us. It was a nice night, once the sun went down and it wasn’t so brutally humid and hot.”

Horton said an estimated 20,000-25,000 people were in attendance at the fairgrounds, with an approximate 75,000 in downtown Cumming and the surrounding area. 

“As we always do, we had a huge, huge crowd,” Horton said. “They were well behaved and everyone looked like they were having a good time. A lot of groups came out together; businesses, churches and neighbors and different things.”

Other festivities at the fairground included inflatables, food vendors, a dance contest and live music from local band Across the Wide. 

Near the center of the fairground members of Mounty Pisgah Baptist Church brought four RVs for members to have a place to fellowship and grill out.

“Several of us set up campers for the last four to five years, have the church youth group come out and just have a cookout and watch fireworks,” said member Randy Chester. “Some of us have been here three or four days; just to set our campers up. We get everything set up probably four or five hours before fireworks and get to cooking so everyone can just have a good time.”

Chester said they grilled some Fourth favorites and different members pitched in different things.

“We’ve cooked hamburgers, hot dogs,” he said. “The church ladies bring out cakes and some good homemade desserts and we just have a good day of enjoyment and kids play games.”

While Monday’s fireworks were a tradition for many, some were seeing them for the first time. 

Near the fairgrounds main entrance, Rachael Kave sat with several family members she was in town visiting from Illinois.

“It’s good to come out and be with other people,” she said, “and as a family sit and enjoy fireworks.”