Note, this is for the 2008 July 4th Celebration, click here for the 2009 schedule
July 4th promises to be an activity packed one as we are faced with a sort of perfect storm of events. Not only are fireworks once again planned, we also have First Friday and the Summer Street Music Series. Because of this, this year the fireworks will be held downtown to coincide with the rest of the events.
The Alexandra Day Band kicks things off at 2pm with a concert at the corner of Bridge and Main. Following them at 3pm will be Telleri Band and at 4 the Michael Packer Blues Band takes the stage. Finally, headlining the day is Craig Newell's Evening with Elvis.
All of this will be accompanied by the usual First Friday festivities. The evening will end with a firework celebration scheduled to begin around 9:30.
And for those of you who missed the fireworks last year because of the weather, the early report is for a 30% chance of isolated thunderstorms, which is pretty much par for the course this time of year.
Comments
Knowing where they will be set off will help everyone figure out where to go to get a good look.
Not that there is much parking on the North Side anyway, there sure is a lot more than you'll find in town for this event. If there's one report of a kid getting hit by a car as they're playing in the street waiting for the show, kiss fireworks goodbye at Phoenixville.
How does everybody feel they compare to Pottstown's...or how are they in general?
Reservoir Park is the highest point in town (unless the fireworks are going to be shot off from the bluffs, which would be very cool, but I'm still now sure where one could get a good sight line as there are plenty of trees between the bluffs and the streets) so the advantage to shooting them off there was that you could see the fireworks pretty much anywhere in town where there weren't trees. By having a "family area" in Friendship Field, small children could run around and be safe.
At this point, I'm not convinced that people will really be able to see the fireworks that well, but I'll reserve judgement until we find out where in those 80 acres the fireworks are going off.
They said it is going to be behind Molly Maguires. She said there are places to sit in the grass and on the sidewalks. 100 block of Bridge street will be closed, but High Street (which goes up to the North Side) will not. I don't know, I still wish they were at Friendship Field. :(
As far as how are the Phoenixville fireworks...I thought they were pretty good. The show used to run about 40 minutes +/-...and I thought the quality was pretty good. There was a snafu last year, and the show went off in a torrential downpour after 95% of the people left. Combine that with this year's change of venue, I'm quite apathetic about the whole deal...which is a shame.
I took some pictures in 2004, which (if I did my HTML properly) can be viewed by clicking here
Beach chairs are fine for parades, it runs right in front of you. If the fireworks are behind Molly's, the only place I can see where people will sit is along bridge street. Main street has to remain open for access to the North Side, so I don't see that as a great place to sit and watch.
It just seemed like Friendship Field was the perfect place for fireworks. Big open field, food, games, kids can play ball or frisbee, and a great view no matter where you were. Why fix something that's not broken?
PS - Looks like mother nature may not agree with any of us.
Looking forward to Independence day 2009!