New Location for Fun Fourth Fireworks

The 37th annual Fun Fourth Festival will move its grand finale News & Record Pops Concert and Gate City Fireworks Spectacular to a new home at White Oak Amphitheatre at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex on Monday, July 4 from 7:30 p.m. – 10 p.m. Gates open at 5:30 p.m.

“We are thrilled to be a part of one of the signature events in our community, the Fun Fourth Festival,” said Coliseum managing director Matt Brown. “It will be a memorable evening as this free, family-friendly event will be held for the first time in the beautiful setting of White Oak Amphitheatre. Betty Cone and the staff at Grassroots Productions always do a great job of producing this event and we look forward to it being a highlight of our amphitheatre calendar for years to come.”

White Oak Amphitheatre boasts 2,005 reserved seats and an overall capacity of 7,666. The public is welcome to bring blankets and cushions for lawn seating.  It is estimated that over 60,000 people will be able to view the fireworks within a 3-mile radius of the Coliseum Complex at 1921 West Lee Street.

The event and parking will continue to be free of charge with the support of Fun Fourth Festival sponsors including News & Record, City of Greensboro, Greensboro Coliseum Complex, WFMY News 2, Fairway Outdoor Advertising and other community organizations and businesses.

The News & Record Pops Concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. featuring the Greensboro Philharmonia Orchestra; the theme will be “Stars and Stripes Forever.”  Congressman Howard Coble will give a brief Independence Day Address during the ceremonies at 9:00 p.m.  The Orchestra will play the 1812 Overture as the lights go down in the parking lots.  The Gate City Fireworks Spectacular will brighten the skies from 9:30 – 10:00 p.m.

The Fun Fourth Festival is produced by Grassroots Productions Limited. This local non-profit organization focuses on charitable and educational activities which foster interest in local history and events in Guilford County. More than 100 businesses and the City of Greensboro help sponsor the events. Over 12,000 volunteer hours of assistance are also donated.  An advisory board of local business and civic leaders oversees the planning of each event.

The Fun Fourth Festival has been recognized as a Top 20 Event by the Southeast Tourism Society and as an Outstanding Event by Celebration NC Foundation.

Details:

Monday, July 4
News & Record Pops Concert and Gate City Fireworks Spectacular
NEW LOCATION: White Oak Amphitheatre at Greensboro Coliseum Complex
•    Gates open 5:30 p.m.
•    News & Record Pops Concert w/ Greensboro Philharmonia Orchestra 7:30 – 8:45 p.m.
•    Independence Day Ceremonies 8:50 p.m. – 9:15 p.m.
•    Gate City Fireworks Spectacular 9:30 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
•    Admission and parking free; no pets, please.
•    Tailgating allowed in parking lot.
•    Food & beverage vendors adjacent to Amphitheatre
•    Blankets and Cushions allowed on lawn
•    No lawn chairs, outside food and beverages in White Oak Amphitheatre.
•    Rain date Tuesday, July 5.
•    Follow cancellation and weather delays via Twitter @Fun4thGSO

Please visit www.FunFourthFestival.org for more information

Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations

As we begin the last month of winter, most of us are grateful that it is the shortest month of the year. Memories of the beautiful snow that fell over the holidays are replaced with dreams of sandy beaches and warm sunshine. It’s time to start thinking about trading snowballs for beach balls and fires in the fireplace for fires in the grill.

With all this summer fun, of course comes the most American of holidays, the Fourth of July. Marked by cookouts, fireworks, and parades, Independence Day is a staple of summer and certainly something to look forward to as the days seem to get colder and colder. When you are bundling up in that winter coat today, why not think to the future of how you are going to spend that happy day in July.

One of our founding fathers, John Adams, wrote about the Fourth of July, “It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance…with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other…”

The Fun Fourth Festival in Greensboro, NC does John Adams proud by bringing over 90,000 people together to celebrate this great day in American history with music, food, and of course, fireworks. Seems like just the thing to think about when you need a warm memory to get you through these last few weeks of winter. So next time you get a cold chill, just think about how you and your friends will be spending this July Fourth eating funnel cake and partying like it’s 1776!

bit by bit, putting it together...

Stephanie, our summer intern, started this week. She volunteered for us during Festival of Lights, and I guess she liked us so much that she just couldn't stay away! And who could blame her? Let me tell you: we are pretty cool. We can't help it.

On Tuesday, Stephanie's second day, we had one of our Fun Fourth Chairman's meetings. And even though this is my fourth(!!!) Fun Fourth, there's always a point during the preparations when I feel like Stephanie: all this new information is being thrown at me, and I'm trying to quickly process it and figure out how all these pieces will come together to create the Fun Fourth Festival.

Coordinating all the events that comprise Fun Fourth is a giant undertaking, and Grassroots depends on our wonderful, hardworking volunteer Chairmen/women to handle various elements of the Festival. The Chairman's meetings are when we get to hear about the work that everyone has been doing, and we start to get a sense of what the Festival will look like.

Here's a sampling of some of the things we talked about on Tuesday:

• Reiterating for the millionth time that the Street Festival this year is on Saturday, July 3rd. We cannot say this enough: Fun Fourth. Street Festival. Saturday, July 3rd. We would shout it from the rooftops if we could.
• We got a sneak peak of the Fun Fourth mascot for this year. Dolley is still evolving, but we can't wait to show her off.
• As our fearless leader Betty Cone says, "stages are the backbone of any festival." We got an update on the various bands and entertainers who will be gracing our five stages this year, courtesy of our entertainment coordinator, Kathleen McGirty. As always, there's a wide variety of acts, so everybody's sure to find something worth listening to as they wander around the festival. The stage schedule will be online soon, so be sure to check it out!
  
• Hey, Southern Living fans! There's going to be a piece on Fun Fourth in an upcoming issue of the magazine, so be sure to check that out!
• The deadline for Craftscene and Vintage Village applications has been extended to June 1st - HINT HINT.
• When asked to tell us about the Freedom Run, our always entertaining Freedom Run coordinator, Mebane Ham, began with this: "We're gonna have a run." Well, yes. But we do have some really exciting news for this year's run: we've partnered with a wonderful organization called Miles for Smiles, an athletic ride along for children with disabilities who would not normally be able to experience outdoor endurance events such as marathons, triathlons and other road races. For more information on how to participate, you can visit our website.
• And finally, the most important decision we will make all year: who has good enough karma to control the weather for the fireworks on Sunday.

There were many other things we talked about, but we don't want to give everything away. It's mind-boggling to contemplate all the things that need to be dealt with between now and the Freedom Run on June 26th, and then all the other things that will get put together in the week between the Freedom Run and the Street Festival, but that's why we have these meetings. We deal with the messy details, so that you can come to our events and know that you're going to have a great time.

The Beauty of YouTube

What I love about YouTube is that you can search for anything and find a video regarding it! My favorite musician: Lyle Lovett



How to tie a tie: (almost 3 million views)



Or Fun Fourth in Greensboro....enjoy some of these videos that we found while searching the internet.












I'm sure as I continue to search I will discover more items of interest posted on YouTube! If you have any videos of Fun Fourth or other Downtown Greensboro events please feel free to send them along to us for posting! Enjoy.
.

Sponsor Spotlight: The News & Record

Fireworks are integral to Greensboro's Fourth of July celebration and we are grateful that for the last several years the News & Record has been a sponsor of the Fireworks!

The News & Record POPS Concert and Fireworks Spectacular will be held on Saturday, July 4th at Jamieson Stadium on the Grimsley High School Campus. The gates open at 6:30pm at 7:30pm the Philharmonia of Greensboro will perform. The 1812 Overture starts at 9:20pm with the Fireworks Spectacular following!

If you are watching the fireworks from your car from one of the many viewing positions in Greensboro make sure that you have signed up to follow us on twitter -- you will receive tweets from Grassroots with all of the fireworks update (including weather reports and shooting schedules).

Many thanks to the News & Record for sponsoring this terrific community event!
.

Fun Fourth harnesses the awesome power of new media!

Imagine yourself, if you will, after a long day at the Fun Fourth Festival. You've seen some great bands, bought some one-of-a-kind crafts from some of our many vendors, gorged yourself on funnel cake*, and you'd like nothing more than to just go home, sit back and relax. But wait! The day isn't over yet! Because you can't truly say you've celebrated the Fourth of July in Greensboro unless you've watched the fireworks at Grimsley High School's football stadium.

Ooooooooh!

Aaaaaaaaah!

Now, you have two options: You can go to the stadium and enjoy the ceremonies and the concert featuring the wonderful Philharmonia of Greensboro, or, like so many people do, you can enjoy the fireworks from the surrounding areas, like Lake Daniel Park. One year, when I was living off of Friendly Avenue, near Wesley Long Hospital, I could see the fireworks from the front yard of my apartment. It was fantastic.

There's a catch about watching the fireworks outside of the stadium, though: what to do if it looks like it's going to rain, or it actually does. Because our events are almost always outside, we're often subject to the will of the capricious weather gods, and sometimes we have to make a last minute call about whether we wait for the rain to pass, or postpone the fireworks until the next night. You should see us sometimes, all hunched over our cell phones, looking at various radar maps and weather reports - it's actually quite comical.

Anyway, if we do have a change of plans due to weather, if you're at Grimsley, you'll hear the announcement about what we're going to do. But what if you're sitting by the side of the road or in a park? Should you stay or should you go? Well, thanks to the internet and cell phones and new media, there's a fast and easy way to find out what's going on: you can follow Grassroots on Twitter. And you don't even need to haul around a computer to get updates: you can have them sent directly to your phone. Whenever there's an event, we'll be Twittering (Twitting? Tweeting? Don't ask me, I still haven't figured out the best way to say it) away with updates and information, and Fun Fourth is certainly no exception.

Some of you may be asking "Twitter? What is that?" Or "you mean the site whose claim to fame is that it lets you tell people every single minute, mundane detail of your life?" Yes, that Twitter. Don't worry, we're not going to bore you to tears with stuff you don't really want to hear about. We'll tweet (as they say) what's necessary and informative, to make sure you have a fantastic time at Fun Fourth.


*In case you were wondering: yes, I do have a one-track mind.
.