FAIRBORN — Fairborn citizens will let freedom ring Wednesday, July 3 and Thursday, July 4 with annual back-to-back events as they celebrate Independence Day.
The holiday events will kickoff 4 to 10 p.m. Wednesday, July 3 with the annual Block Party along Main Street. It will include family-friendly activities, live performances, games, inflatables and more.
Main Street will close from 1 to 11 p.m., as well as the intersections of Central and Grand Avenues to prevent traffic from crossing over Main Street.
The 72nd Annual Fourth of July Parade — noted as one of the largest and oldest in the Miami Valley — will take place 10 a.m. Thursday, July 4 and will follow its traditional route — Broad Street up Central Avenue to Main Street and concluding on Second Street.
Main Street is slated to close 7:30 a.m. Thursday, July 4 while the remainder of the parade route will close at 9:30 a.m. Those streets will re-open at the conclusion of the parade.
Jeff Schmitt will be honored posthumously as the parade Grand Marshal. A flyover by the Greene County Aero Club will signal the parade’s start while the Fairborn Civic Band performs the National Anthem at the reviewing stand.
The celebration will continue beginning 5:30 p.m. Thursday, July 4 with live performances, food, amusement rides and activities at Community Park, 691 E. Dayton-Yellow Springs Road. The band Hey There Morgan will kick-off the evening entertainment from 5:30-7 p.m. followed by the featured headliner Full Frontal Band slated to take the stage 7:30-10 p.m.
A fireworks display — which is being noted this year as the largest in the event’s history — will follow the Full Frontal Band performance at approximately 10 p.m.
The traffic signal at Community Park and Fairborn High School may be altered upon the event’s conclusion to allow motorists parked in those areas to turn back onto Dayton-Yellow Springs Road.
