CONNEAUT – The Fourth of July celebration in Conneaut has been a tradition for more than 140 years.
That tradition continued as America celebrated its 250th birthday, despite some changes to the schedule because of extreme heat.
“It’s been 146 years that it’s been happening here,” Red, White and Boom! Over Lake Erie Festival Secretary Missy Arcaro said. “I think the community loves to have someplace to come out to, and we’re trying to get back to the family stuff like with the pizza-eating contest, the watermelon-eating contest. We’ve got the (Conneaut High School Marching Band) out here with the dunk tank going on. We’re trying to bring family things back. We’ve got kiddie rides again.”
The Red, White and Boom! Over Lake Erie Festival was held July 2-4 at Lakeview Park in Conneaut.
“(The festival) means a lot to me,” Ward 1 City Councilman Rick Gaugh said. “I don’t have to go for big celebrations. I like to be with my family. The family’s getting thinner and I need to cherish that more than anything. We lost a few this year. We miss them, and they loved picnics.”
In many ways, the festival is a celebration of the history of the city as much as a celebration of the Fourth of July.
“My father came home from the war, and the poles have been replaced, but when they came back, they helped dig the holes and stick (the light poles) in,” Gaugh said. “My father was a barber for 60-some years on Main Street. I saw a lot of things. I heard a lot of things. It’s always been good for Conneaut. As a council person, I strive to keep our city going and stay good.”
“It’s a chance to take your kids to something close and I get to see the kids,” Gaugh continued. “That is my enjoyment.”
Extreme heat forced the festival committee to cancel the parade on Friday.
“This was exceedingly painful and I went back-and-forth on it 101 times and, obviously, we make it as a board decision in combination with a local leadership, but I take 100-percent responsibility for it because the parade has kind of become my baby over the years,” Red, White and Boom! Over Lake Erie Festival Vice President Neil Simpson said. “I saw reports, both local and regional, of mass heat-related issues. We had young kids at professional or semi-professional baseball games who passed out. We had more than 100 people over in Reading, Pa., have to be treated for heat exhaustion (while watching the Big Boy pass through).”
“All this stuff was kind of in the wings and I wrestled with it back-and-forth, and ultimately, after consulting, the health department, the city manager’s office and the chief of police, we kind of made an executive decision to say it’s not for the best interest of the community despite the fact that Conneaut loves a parade,” Simpson continued.
The parade was not rescheduled.
“We just didn’t see where the weather would break sufficiently in our favor with the pavement temperatures the whole weekend,” Simpson said. “This is not just a pop-up storm and we could postpone it. This is a heat-wave that is just sitting on top of us, and the ground temperatures aren’t going to change. The Astatic parking lot, as nice as that is, there’s no shade. There’s no way for anybody to be treated and all of our emergency personnel in the parade with us, so God forbid something serious happened for our veterans or our community youth, who are marching in the parade.”
The festival was still held and well-attended.
“The heat has kept some people away,” Simpson said. “The car show was a little smaller than last year. Everybody who has come out has had a great attitude, but it’s been difficult to have people come out in this heat.”
Many festival attendees waited until the sun started to go down before making their way to the festival.
“Last night was the pageant and the crowd was wonderful,” Arcaro said. “It was really nice to see a bunch of people in the audience cheering those little girls on. They were so stinking cute and it seemed to pick up a little bit after that. Throughout the day, when we first opened up, it was a little slow. It was hot, but once the sun started to go down, the people started to come out. There was a nice breeze. The band last night was phenomenal. I expect the same thing today. Believe it or not, it’s a little cooler today than it was yesterday, but the rides didn’t open until 3 p.m. today because of the heat. I expect the same thing tonight and hopefully even more so because the first night’s always a little bit hit or miss.”
A breeze off of the lake did turn Lakeview Park into a place where people could get away from the heat.
“There’s plenty of tents for them to get under the shade for a few minutes, but the breeze has been kicking up,” Arcaro said. “It’s been really nice.”
As always, the festival brought people together.
“It’s very exciting,” Arcaro said. “We’ve got people here who came from Sharon, Pa., to volunteer here, so they’ve come up to stay in our area and like the area and they’re volunteering,” Arcaro said. “It’s bringing more than one community together.”
The festival committee was extremely grateful for the event sponsors that made it all possible.
“There’s a ton of them to go through,” Arcaro said. “Dairy Queen sponsored the pageant. We’ve had Steve’s Auto Wash for Friday night’s entertainment and (Saturday) night’s entertainment is sponsored by the Conneaut Moose Club. Those are the big, huge sponsors, but there are so many other ones to name.”
The fireworks display on Saturday night was put on by Pyrotecnico once again and a large crowd was expected.
“We’re hoping for a great turnout,” Arcaro said. “Hopefully, the weather (will hold up). People have been saying the weather tomorrow is going to be bad and I’m hoping they’re all wrong. Everybody looks forward to the fireworks. It’s a huge show and they come in from everywhere. They come and start parking at the public dock and park their car there and then leave and come back so that they have their spot. They’ve done that for years.”
