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Footloose for the Fourth
Annual dance competition follows fireworks
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Forsyth County News
Alice and Dick Thyer will be cuttin' a rug as part of this year's Independence Day festivities at the Cumming Fairgrounds.
The Thyers plan on participating in the annual dance contest July 3 after the fireworks. Alice Thyer said it's a longstanding tradition for her and her husband.
"We don't jitterbug, we rock and roll," she said.
Thyer said they won the competition about four years ago and since have declined to participate in the dance off to pick the final winners.
"We're in our 70s. It's funny that they picked us (as the winners), but we do like to dance. It's fun," she said.
"We dance at the fourth of July and always on Christmas we go to a big Christmas party and we dance."
Thyer said she and her husband always wear red, white and blue for the event.
Dave Horton, fairgrounds administrator, said the dance contest is open to participants of all ages.
"The band will crank up and start playing and everybody dances out there and they have judges that walk out there and just pick some that they bring up on stage," he said.
Horton said once finalists are chosen, they dance again and winners are selected by audience applause.
He said the dance usually starts right at 10 p.m., once the fireworks are over, at the Old Sawmill Stage near Heritage Village.
The dance is organized by Gold 104.3 FM. Pam Law, sales director for the station, said the top three winners will receive prizes ranging from $400 to $100 savings bonds from First Citizens Bank of Georgia. Additional prizes for runners-up will also be awarded.
"Our band is going to be Georgia Sensation," she said. "It will be mostly oldies and dance music. They're an offshoot of a band that we've had there several times called Risky Business and that was more like '70s type music so with their new band I expect that to be similar."
Law said this year there will be six finalists, a change from the 10 that have been chosen in the past, and that judges are representatives of the radio station.