Fireworks, food and other festivities will be on tap for one of the city of Cumming’s biggest and loudest events.
On Monday from 6-11 p.m., the Cumming Fairgrounds will play host to Fourth of July festivities, including fireworks, a dance contest and a live band. Admission and parking are free.
“Everywhere there’s asphalt, anywhere you can park a car in the city limits or even out of the city limits … there will be people that can see all the high level [fireworks],” said Dave Horton, administrator for the fairgrounds. “There’s a lot of folks I don’t see, but it seems like we’ve got everyone here at the fairgrounds.
If you go
What: July 4th festivities at the Cumming Fairgrounds
When: Monday July 3rd, 6-11 p.m.
Where: The Cumming Fairgrounds, 235 Castleberry Road.
What will be there: Fireworks, food, a dance contest, local band Across the Wide, a kids’ zone with inflatables and more.
Horton said fireworks will start at 9:30 p.m. and last around 20 minutes, which means a better show for visitors.
“It’s designed to be a 30 minutes show; I tell them to make it a 20 minute show and that puts more shells in the air at one time,” Horton said. “It makes for a little more spectacular show … it’s a pretty big show.”
At 8:30 p.m., a local radio station will host a dance contest, which will likely not feature professional dancers.
“It’s all ages. They’ll go and pick about six of them out of the crowd and they’ll get up on stage,” Horton said. “Then, by audience applause, they’ll pick a winner.”
Horton said prizes, including tickets to the Cumming Country Fair & Festival in October, will be awarded to the winner.
Local band Across the Wide will perform at 7:30 p.m. and Horton said they will likely play more after the dance contest and fireworks.
The city holds the event on the day before Independence Day, which is popular for both vendors and attendees. Horton said in past years when the fireworks were held the same day as the annual Steam Engine Parade, it left vendors waiting most of the day between the events.
“It’s more beneficial, more event-friendly to the vendors, especially the food vendors,” Horton said. “But the people love it. We get a lot of comments from people every year about it because anyone who’s a pyrotechnic-nut knows now they get to see a show on the third, then they can … see another show on the fourth.”
He said on the rare occasions the holiday falls on a Sunday, which means both parade and fireworks are held earlier than usual, spectators can see four straight days of fireworks around the area.
The fairgrounds are located at 235 Castleberry Road. For more information, go to CummingFair.net.