Fireworks will be launched throughout the holiday weekend in Fayetteville giving residents options for celebrating Independence Day.
While this is the first year in nearly 30 years that Fort Bragg will not put on their annual patriotic bash due to the sequester cuts, the community rallied together to ensure that fireworks will appear. The event drew a crowd upwards of 50,000 spectators.
One resident, Jeff Wells, 'saved the day' by winning the essay contest for "Red, White and You" whose prize is a mega-celebration that includes food, music and fireworks for the entire city. The event will be held at Fayetteville's Festival Park downtown. The event is sponsored by Destination America and USA Weekend, a national weekly magazine.
Fort Bragg's 82nd Airborne Chorus will provide some patriotic music along will other bands and local artists.
Celebrate early at Festival Park on July 1 where the North Carolina Symphony will have its Independence Day concert that ends with a bang - yes, fireworks.
Hope Mills residents will be able to attend their annual festivities on the fourth which includes a parade and also ends in fireworks.
Stepping up to the plate after Fort Bragg's celebration was canceled, the Fayetteville SwampDogs baseball team quickly organized their own fireworks show following the game on July 3. The celebration will be free for all families with military identification cards and open to the public, officials said. It will be sponsored, in part, by Healy Wholesale, Powers-Swain Chevrolet and Beasley Broadcasting.
"It was something we felt was important to do for the community," General Manager Jeremy Aagard said in a Fayetteville Observer news report. "Fort Bragg has done an amazing job. Now, we want to make this pretty special."
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