ADDISON COUNTY — For residents staying close to home thisholiday weekend, Addison County celebrates the Fourth of July with fun eventsand activities spanning the county, ranging from live music and fireworks toliving history events and town parades.
The VERGENNES bandconcert and firework display kicks off the weekend’s festivities in style onThursday evening, July 3. Both events can be viewed from the recreation fieldbehind the high school or elementary school. An American Legion color guard at7:30 p.m. is followed by the concert. Fireworks start at 9:30 p.m. The event isfunded by the Vergennes American Legion and the Addison County Eagles.
BRISTOL chimes inwith fireworks of its own on the 3rd, which will be launched over theRecreation Field at dusk. The town’s infamous Great Bristol Outhouse Race seesits 30th annual running on July 4 at 9 a.m. The event, held on Main Street, issponsored by the Five Town GGG Club and the Bristol 4th of July Committee. Thetown’s annual parade will follow the outhouse races at 10:30 a.m.
SHOREHAM residentsand visitors can gear up for Independence Day activities with a full bellyafter attending the pancake breakfast at the Congregational Church on theGreen. For $6 adults can eat their fill of sausage, bacon, eggs and blueberryor plain pancakes, washing breakfast down with coffee and juice. (Preteens eatfor $3 and children under 6 munch for free.) The proceeds will support theflying of the American flag in Shoreham.
Still hungry? SALISBURY holdsits 34th annual ice cream social on July 4, rain or shine, from 2 to 5 p.m. atthe Salisbury Congregational Church.
Visitors to FORT TICONDEROGA across Lake Champlain can commemorate the Revolutionary War on July 4.The day will be punctuated by readings of the Declaration of Independence, andfrom 10 a.m. until noon and from 2 until 4 p.m. visitors can participate in thebuilding of an 18th century soldiers’ hut and hear about Abenaki military life.
FERRISBURGHcelebrates the nation’s independence with a three-day program at the LakeChamplain Maritime Museum. On the 3rd, 4th and 5th visitors will receive aspecial tour of the museum’s Key to Liberty Building and a replica of therevolutionary war gunboat Philadelphia II. Unitarian minister andauthor Gary Kowalski will give a talk at the Basin Harbor Road museum at 7:30p.m. on the 3rd about the diverse and independent religious attitudes of ournation’s founding fathers.
Revelers can pay tribute to the soldiers of the RevolutionaryWar in HUBBARDTON at a reenactmentencampment at the Hubbardton Battlefield State Historic Site on July 5. Theevent will include tactical military demonstrations, a drilling martial, guidedcamp and battlefield tours, courts martial and camp life activities. The livinghistory weekend continues on July 6.
BRANDON wraps uplocal Fourth of July festivities with a bang when it hosts an all-daycelebration on July 5 from 9 a.m. until after dark. The celebration, which willbe held in the Central Park and Park Village, will include vendors, a silentauction, activities for children, a parade at 1 p.m., a race, concert, afiddlers’ contest at 3:30 p.m., rides, amusements, food — and last, but notleast, fireworks.