Lexington Fourth of July celebrations return downtown after two-year absence due to COVID
The smells of Kettle corn and roasted corn on the cob along with sounds of live music and party-goers once again wafted through downtown Lexington in celebration of Independence Day on Monday.
After a two year hiatus due to COVID-19, the Lexington Fourth of July festival made a comeback with the usual celebrations. Thousands of people were set up to view the annual parade.
One of them was the Fike family, who were covered head-to-toe in red, white, blue, stars and stripes.
According to mother Rachel Fike, they were happy to return, and their son participated in his first mile-long race as part of the morning’s 46th annual Bluegrass 10,000 Fun and Run.
Most importantly, they said they were just happy to spend some family time together.
“And food — I love the street food,” Rachel said.
“The fireworks, too,” her husband, Shawn, said. “We were excited for it to be back.”
Also excited were the vendors who dotted North Limestone. Vanessa Hodges, owner of SweetSisters Shaved Ice, was working with her three daughters, Charlie, Isabella and Addison. The business was at the event in 2019 before coronavirus hit and Hudges said she was happy with this year’s turnout.
“The band is good, the women’s march is nice — we didn’t have that before. I haven’t seen the parade but it has been different this year because we got to set up yesterday instead of this morning which was kind of nice that we didn’t have to get up at 5:30 a.m.,” Hodges said, laughing. “So far it has been pretty smooth, I think they have about 15 vendors which is nice.”
Casey Ward and his family, of Lexington, said they were looking forward to the parade. The group set up about an hour before the parade’s start to get a good seat.
Casey said this was the fourth time the family had attended the parade together.
The grand finale of the day’s events were the annual Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular at 10 p.m. at the R.J. Corman Railroad Group facilities on the corner of Main Street and Oliver Lewis Way.
However, the festivities did not just begin the day of the Fourth of July. At the beginning of the month, Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton announced the events would look a lot like pre-pandemic celebrations.
On July 1, holiday festivities in Lexington began with an Ice Cream Social downtown at Henry A. Tandy Centennial Park. The city provided cold treats to cool down along with music to kick off the holiday weekend from Young at Heart Dixieland Band.
The next day, events in Lexington continued with Red, White & Blues, a concert at the Moondance Amphitheater. The concert featured live music from Blues guitarist Greg Schafer and Lexington native TeeDee Young.
Sunday held more music events with the popular Patriotic Concert on the lawn at Transylvania University in Gratz Park. The concert kicked off with a performance from Young at Heart Big Band, followed by the Lexington Philharmonic.
