5th Annual Independence Day Eve Celebration Best and Largest

By all accounts the 5th Annual Independence Day Eve celebration held Sunday in Apalachicola will go down in history as the best with the largest number in attendance to date.

The celebration was filled with fun activities starting with the Red, White and Blue golf cart parade, the free ice cream social, the live entertainment and the camaraderie and fellowship between patriotic Americans.

The celebration was enhanced this year with the signing of the Tobacco Road Band out of Tallahassee as the headline entertainment and the playing of patriotic music in the background during the award winning fireworks show. 

The anticipated fireworks commenced on cue, after a boisterous crowd arose to their feet in silence to pay homage to old glory during a beautiful rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner by Jhaki Davis, a local resident and minister from the Love and Worship Center Church. As the fireworks display concluded, the energetic crowd cheered and chanting USA, USA, USA.

The number in attendance far exceeded the 5,000 anticipated and reported to Apalachicola City Commissioners at their regular June meeting by Jim Bachrach, Chairman of Historic Apalachicola Main Street Board of Directors.

The large crowd created a traffic jam as they began exiting Riverfront Park after the fireworks show had ended. According to Apalachicola Police Chief Bobby Varnes, traffic was backed up to a point where a police office had to be dispatched to direct the flow of traffic out of town.

“Traffic leaving Apalachicola traveling east on U.S. 98 was backed up and at a standstill from 12^th Street to the bridge and from the bridge all the way to Eastpoint”, said Chief Varnes.

The annual celebration is panning out to be a much-needed economic boost for the merchants and businesses of Apalachicola and a fun time for locals and visitors alike.

All thanks to Historic Apalachicola Main Street, their volunteers, supporters and community partners. The outcome of their effort is irrefutable evidence of what can be accomplished when a community work together in true partnership.