Drawing huge crowds in Gadsden
Story by Paul South
Submitted photos
Had the Founding Fathers been on the banks of the Coosa River July 3 and 4 for Gadsden’s Freedom Fest celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Republic they created, they would have been blown away.
A flotilla of boats bobbed in the water; their decks filled with happy revelers almost shoulder to shoulder. It was the same story on the riverbank, as the crowd arrived early to get a great view of the fiery illuminations that hours later would light up the nighttime sky.
Conservative estimates put the crowd at 15,000, but that number may have been closer to 20,000.
“It was just crazy,” Gadsden’s Director of Commercial Development and Community Affairs John Moore said.
Not far away, adventurous passengers boarded hot air balloons painted every color of the rainbow, the stars of a Hot Air Balloon Festival. Such modes of transportation weren’t seen in America until January 1793, nearly 17 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
In addition to local audiences, Gadsden’s aerial armada of balloons and the city’s fireworks were seen by the nation, broadcast live on the CBS Evening News. Imagine what American revolutionaries would have pondered about television. But that’s another story.
Folks ate and drank and listened to music from the Black Jacket Symphony, tunes the likes of which John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock and their fellow citizens could never have busted a move to in their time. Yacht Rock, after all, was nothing like Mozart.
Still, it’s a safe bet that the men who pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to the new nation would have loved the scene. After all, fireworks exploding into blossoms of fire and light in the night sky, folks of every faith, color and creed speaking with unabashed freedom and delight, was the spark that ignited the flame of liberty in Philadelphia.
Fast forward to July 25-26 on South Third Street near Riverview Regional Medical Center, that same life, liberty and pursuit of happiness would have been wet and wild at Gadsden’s Slide the City Back to School Bash, an event aimed at giving kids and their families another memory to cherish as summer waned and a new school year approached. A 1,000-foot water slide created a huge splash, with 1,400 hitting the slide, a last bit of fun before summer’s end.
“It was a sellout, “Moore said. “It was a huge success.”
What would the Founders think of all these events, not just on Independence Day, but throughout the year in Gadsden?
“I would hope that they would be proud,” Moore said. “I hope that the Founding Fathers would sit back and look and see how the country has progressed over the years. This is beyond anything they would have ever dreamt of at the end of the day.
“They didn’t think about quality of life, or hot air balloon festivals. I doubt that even crossed their minds at the time,” Moore said.
“To come back years later and to see a foundation of what they built and what came about from those signatures they put on that page that day, I hope they’d be proud of what we’ve done.”
