And the beautiful and scary explosive light show begins.
After hours of fun and amazing parent-child and friend to friend bonding activities, the Village of Washingtonville's Friday night "Food, Fire & Fun Festival " exploded about half an hour of a beautiful, and YES frightening Fireworks Display. Screams filled the night at Vern Allen Park, as a crowd estimated by Chief Brian Zaccaro and officials at over 2,000 people, the largest Indepedence Day Crowd at Vern Allen Park ever, filled the area while they watched the scariest fireworks they had ever seen, culminating in some seriously weird ghostly sounding spiral flares that after a pause erupted into seemingly endless explosives. The mood turned a hundred "Oooo's and Ah;s" into outright frightened screams.... finally ending in a burst of laughter. Again, when no one was expecting it, the end came with an enormous display of a bright cluster of colors close to the ground, resulting in some screams and then an avalanche of applause.
The mixture was of obvious pride in the USA the Town, Village & Community bonding in group activities led by the Hillbilly Parade Band while elsewhere toddlers clung to their moms' legs, young boys ran errantly with lightsticks, moms rocked babies in their arms, a group of teens seated in a circle on the lawn looked like they just formed a club, and little girls showed off their face painted designs.
The amazing juggler Keith Leaf gave the kchildren such a treat by having them participate. and certainly the Hillbilly Parade final song, "I will Survive was belted in such a beautiful way that the last note still seems to carry on endlessly ...incredible! It could have been "the 30's, 50's or 70's and was perfectly good old-fashioned Americana. When the Hillbilly Parade's Line Dancing group started following the step orders it was especially touching that an entire corner of the dance group included moms stepping and swaying to the music with tiny infants in their arms.
The Events Committee welcomed residents earlier in the afternoon and the activities just kept going and going.
Throughout it all the air was filled with so many yummy food aromas that it was hard to pick a line. while walking past the competing smells of popcorn, fish, ice cream, wings, Funnel Cakes, foods from Amada's Kitchen, Guilty Pleasures Cheesecakes and more. The lines to each food truck were long, but it wasn't at all frustrating because the participants just partied while waiting.
Past the dozen or so food trucks there was also a circle of vendors with carefully set up tables and wares including one with more than a dozen wonderful wax melt scents, tee shirts, the face painting tent, Native Scents, Stab a Stitch, Sprinkled with Pixie Dust and Pink Zebra, and more.
Oficer Mary Elena Moran arrived earlier in the day with her Police Mount "Madison" to promote new members joining the very challenging and rewarding specialty of Mounted Policing.Madison is a fabulous ambassador both for the police and equestrian communities and visits fairs and events throughout the region.
With the entire Route 94 end of the Park cordoned off with orange fencing, the half-hour of streaming fireworks were accompanied by police and first responders to perfection and kept the evening reassuringly safe.
For a new VIllage Administration it was a feather in their caps as they showed just how serious they are about keeping the village residents happy and involved.
Check back later...... more photos and videos coming in Part 2.
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