MIDDLEBURY — Avoid the Fourth of July crowds and the traffic, find easy parking and enjoy music and fireworks honoring Independence Day — and you’ll help out the local museum of Vermont history while you are at it.
The family-favorite 25th Annual Henry Sheldon Museum Pops Concert and Fireworks Display will be staged this Thursday, June 29, on the spacious, manicured grounds of the Middlebury College athletic fields, nestled between and with views of the Adirondack and Green Mountains.
The concert will feature the celebrated Vermont Philharmonic led by energetic Director Lou Kosma with special vocal selections by Merritt David Janes, currently appearing in the Broadway cast of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s musical “School of Rock.”
Janes’ stage and singing credits also include “Phantom of the Opera,” “Catch Me if You Can,” “Shrek,” “Beauty and the Beast” and the title character in “Sweeney Todd.”
Concert grounds open for picnicking at 5:30 p.m.; concert begins at 7:30: fireworks display at sunset. Should the weather interfere, the  concert is held in the adjacent Kenyon Arena of Middlebury College’s Peterson Family Athletic Complex.
Ticket are: adult, $25; youth age 12-18, $10; children under 12, free, courtesy of donations from sponsors and underwriters. Tickets may be purchased at the Concert.  Proceeds from the Concert benefit the Sheldon Museum in Middlebury.
 Bring your blankets, lawn chairs, flashlights, bug spray and picnic dinners. A refreshment tent will offer hot dogs, drinks and sweets.