The City of Alcoa is making its final preparations for FreedomFest 2017. The City’s 39th edition of the tremendously popular Independence Day celebration is set for Saturday, June 24th from 6:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m. at the Alcoa Duck Pond. The entire community is invited to attend the exciting family fun filled event.
The world renowned Pyro Shows, Inc., a fireworks production company headquartered in LaFollette, Tennessee, will again provide the event’s patriotic firepower.
For the twelfth year, the spectacular fireworks show will be choreographed to ever popular music for all ages ranging from patriotic to pop hits. The flurry of colorful explosives will include over 9,000 shells sized from 3” to 8”. All will propel into the skies over the water transforming the sky into a wall of color accompanied by thundering, earth shaking booms. To enhance their beauty and drama, individual fireworks are synchronized to specific elements in the music creating dramatic scenes that defy the imagination. The music will be broadcast by way of speakers along Springbrook Road bordering the Duck Pond.
In addition to the impressive display of pyrotechnics, Glenn Morton will be emceeing the event at the entertainment stage located in the Duck Pond parking lot. Country music singer/songwriter Johno Clayton will kick off the entertainment on stage from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Headlining the evening’s entertainment is the local southern rock band Nuthin’ Fancy, whose music features renditions of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker, The Black Crowes, and BlackBerry Smoke. They take the stage at 8:00 p.m. breaking for the 20-minute fireworks spectacle at approximately 9:45 p.m. Entertainers will return to the stage at the end of the pyrotechnic presentation to treat event goers to music and “dancing in the street”. Food vendors will operate on the same schedule, stopping only for the 20-minute fireworks display. Plan to stay and enjoy more music, food and fun!
A children’s area will be located between the Duck Pond and Springbrook Pool. Activities will include a Fun Factory Climbing Wall, Bounce House, Inflatable Slide, Obstacle Course, Bungee Run, sandbox, and face painting by Faces Gone Wild and Making Faces.
The Alcoa City Schools Foundation (ACSF) will be raising funds to benefit the Alcoa City Schools system through the sale of its FreedomFest t-shirt. The shirts are available in a variety of sizes and may be purchased for $10 the ACSF booth where they will also be doing temporary patriotic tattoos. Sponsors Brown Chiropractic, Knoxville TVA Employees Credit Union, Coldwell Bankers – Wallace and Wallace, and Renewal by Anderson will all have informational booths while First Baptist Church of Alcoa will provide activities.
A wide variety of food will be available with 16 food vendors present. Food vendors and a sampling of their menus include:
- Alimentos de Vero – chimichangas, taquitos, rice, beans, cheese dip, chips, drinks
- Artistic Pops – various flavors of all-natural, gluten-free, dairy-free gourmet popsicles
- B & D Concessions (Mother Shuckers) - char-burgers, hand-dipped corn dogs, French fries, chicken strips, funnel cakes, tea, lemonade
- Chef Mo’s Café and Catering – Philly cheese steak, chicken Philly, chicken wings, quesadilla burgers, beef tips, herb grille chicken, drinks, Jamaican punch
- Chuck’s Concessions - Popcorn, nachos, ice tea, hot dogs, cotton candy, lemonade, mini donuts
- Geno’s Pit Stop – burgers, hot dogs, pork, nachos, French fries, smoked sausage
- Huff Farms Sweet Corn – roasted sweet corn
- Parrott’s Concessions – Italian sausage, hot dogs, corn dogs, pizza, funnel cakes, hamburgers
- Quick Fix Coffee – specialty coffees, smoothies, Italian sodas
- Rainbo Ice & Funnel Cakes – funnel cakes, shaved ice; deep-fried oreos & twinkies
- Smoky Mountain Kettle Korn – kettle korn, funnel cakes
- Smoky Mountain Snow – snow cones, cotton candy, kettle korn
- This Is It Pizza – Pizza, drinks
- Tic Toc Ice Cream – cups and waffle cones
- Two Ladies Italiano – Taste of Greece – fajita wraps, fajitas, Greek plates, fruit bowls, tea, lemonade, drinks
- West Marketing Italian Ice – variety of flavored Italian ice, kettle corn
The City of Alcoa will set up an information booth at the intersection of Springbrook Road and Lodge Street. The booth will also serve those with lost and found items and anyone needing emergency medical assistance.
Bicycles, skateboards, hover boards, roller blades and skates are prohibited in the event area as well as alcohol, pets and animals. Those bicycling the greenway are asked not to enter the event area due to the congestion and heavy pedestrian traffic. Attendees should not bring any pet or animal onto the event site other than animals used for the impaired. Dogs and other animals can be sensitive to the noise of fireworks and can disturb other event attendees. Event goers are reminded that any type of fireworks are banned from the event area with the exception of those handled by the Pyro Shows for the show.
All entrances to Alcoa Elementary School will be barricaded and closed for event preparation. These areas will be closed to all traffic both motorized and pedestrian. Anyone traveling in or around the Alcoa Little League Park and elementary school are asked to remain on the greenway trail outside the safety zones.
Beginning at 12:00 a.m., Saturday, June 24, 2017, the Alcoa Duck Pond parking lot will be closed along with Springbrook Road between Faraday and Edison Streets. They will remain closed until no later than 8:00 a.m., Sunday, June 25, 2017.
Limited handicapped parking overlooking the Duck Pond will be located at the end of the Alcoa Intermediate School (AIS) parking lot and may be reached by entering the Lodge Street entrance to Alcoa High School then on to the middle school lot. Access to this handicapped area is on a first come basis.
Thanks to Alcoa Inc., attendees can again park in the company’s pasture located at the corner of Springbrook Road and E. Edison Street. It has been prepared by employees of the City of Alcoa Public Works and Engineering Department and should provide parking for 200-300 vehicles. The entrance gate is located along Springbrook Road across from the former fire hall. Also along Springbrook Road, Central Baptist Church will offer parking on the church grounds for attendees. The Alcoa High School (AHS) parking lots off Lodge Street will be open with access from Faraday Street. Nearby is a viewing area at the practice field between the back of the Goddard Field visitors’ bleachers and Alcoa Intermediate School.
Following the event, officers will also be directing traffic out of the Alcoa, Inc. pasture southbound onto Springbrook Road which will be one-way to N. Wright Road, then N. Wright will be one-way to E. Lincoln Rd. A second exit out of the field will empty westbound to Edison St. “We are very grateful to our friends at the aluminum company for continuing to work with us to improve the parking and traffic flow for the community. We appreciate their community involvement by allowing us to again use their property. This should help tremendously with the ever present parking crunch and post event traffic,” said City Manager Mark Johnson. Those exiting the AHS and AIS parking areas will exit onto Lodge Street, one-way to Faraday St., then one-way onto Mills St. to Alcoa Hwy/Hunt Road.
The City of Alcoa and the Alcoa City Schools Foundation want to express their gratitude for the support of the following sponsors: Gold Sponsors – Denso Manufacturing Tennessee, Knoxville TVA Employees Credit Union, LDA Engineering and Coldwell Bank Wallace and Wallace Realtors; Silver Sponsors – Arconic Inc., Blount Memorial Hospital, Brown Chiropractic, C2RL Engineers, Inc., Cannon & Cannon, Inc., First Baptist Church of Alcoa, First Tennessee Bank, Food Lion – Old Knoxville Hwy, Gresham Smith & Partners, Lawler-Wood, LLC., and Renewal by Anderson. Twenty percent of the sponsorship funds go to support the foundation.
For more information, contact Tricia Tipton at (865) 380-4787 or visit www.cityofalcoa-tn.gov/freedomfest.
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