Behind the scenes: Alderson’s Fourth of July Celebration

ALDERSON, WV (WVNS) — One of the biggest Fourth of July celebrations in the state takes place in Alderson.

Alderson’s celebration spans over a week and includes various activities and events to celebrate the holiday.

Beginning on June 29th, the Alderson Fourth of July celebration is already in full swing.

Of course, the big day is still a few days out, but Fourth of July committee members are still working overtime to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Their planning does not just start in June, however, as Lee Skaggs, Vice President of the Fourth of July Committee, says.

“September. It takes a year, ten months to get this thing regulated, get everything lined out,” said Skaggs. “And it’s not exactly easy, but with changes that we wanna do, what we think we might do better next year, and what stuff like that.”

Skaggs said that the events that took up the large share of work this year were the Mud Bog, which took place on June 30th, the drag racing on June 29th, and of course, the highlight of the celebration: the fireworks show on July 4th.

Charles Lobban, Jr. is the co-head of the Fireworks Committee and said this event is a beast to prepare.

“It will take us, with our aerial, about three days to totally get everything set up for as big as our show here in Alderson is. Most places we do shows, we do them in a day. Everything set up, tear down, shoot,” explained Lobban. “And then our ground display, it’ll take a ton of people that day of the show to set it up here on the field which you can’t do till the day of anyway.”

Everyone involved with the fireworks show has to be a licensed pyrotechnician through the state of West Virginia.

Lobban said they usually have 25 to 30 people helping out the day of the event and that both fire departments have personnel and trucks standing by.

So, why does the town go through all this trouble year after year?

Greg Eary, President of the Fourth of July Committee, said it is all about the people.

“The community really just… looks forward to it,” said Eary. “The people that grew up here come back to see it. And it’s just one of the amazing things about Alderson.”

The next day for events is the Fourth of July.

The Grand Parade begins at 10:30 A.M., there will be several events throughout town through the day, and the fireworks show will begin at 10:15 P.M.

The official end of the celebrations is Monday, July 8th with the Ducks on the Greenbrier Race.

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