Salem Will Celebrate the Fourth!

The Fourth of July is coming... despite all appearances, it really is summer, and next weekend (not this weekend) Salem will celebrate the Fourth of July on Derby Wharf for the 9th time! This is a great celebration that is fun, patriotic, celebratory, beautiful, and fun. Did I mention fun?

This year we will applaud the return of the Hillyer Festival Orchestra to the stage, we will ooh-and-ahhh at the military flyover, and we will delight in fireworks overhead as we listen to the 1812 Overture. We will clap along to Footloose with the cast from Salem State College's Summer Theatre, and we will picnic while Sandra Lee sings to us as the opening act.

The kids will dance, make patriotic crafts, and have red-white-and-blue shapes painted on their faces. There will be funnel cake, hot dogs, pizza, ice cream, and kettle corn.

We've done this in the rain. We've done it in shine. It's a wonderful Salem tradition that is all at once American, New England, and all of us who attend.

It all starts at 4pm on July 4th at Derby Wharf at the Salem Maritime National Historic Site. I hope you can join us. (Photography of July 4, 2008 (c) Scott Lanes)