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| Fireworks last year at the Melaleuca Freedom Celebration in Idaho Falls. |
Independence Day occurs on a Thursday this year, which makes for the best of all possible worlds: stick around town for fun and you still have the whole weekend for camping, golf, fishing, mountain biking or just hanging out.
The Military Affairs Committee will start the day with the Firecracker 5K fun run, 7:15 a.m. at Tautphaus Park. Click http://www.idahofallsmac.org/ for information and registration.
The Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce will again organize Idaho's largest parade, through the city’s residential neighborhoods and ending at Tautphaus Park. Riverbend Communications, Idaho Falls Magazine and the Exchange Club will distribute Independence Day schedules and flags beginning at 8:15 a.m. The classic cars and Idaho Falls Police Department will once again start the parade at 9 a.m.
The Liberty Festival on the Falls bridges the gap between the parade in the morning and the fireworks display in the evening. Sponsored by Snake River Landing, Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, and Apple Athletic Club, this year the celebration will be enhanced by the improvements done last fall on Memorial Drive between Broadway and E Street. More than 25 food vendors and 50 businesses will be there, and there fair-style games and activities like pie and watermelon eating contests for children and adults. There will be a full schedule of live music by local bands.
Once the sun goes down, the banks of the river will be jammed with thousands of people come to watch the 25-year-old Melaleuca Freedom Celebration, reputed to be one of the largest July 4 fireworks displays west of the Mississippi River.
For registration information, call the chamber office at 523-1010 or visit the Web site, http://www.idahofallschamber.com.
