"Cherry Hill Strong:" message behind 4th of July festival

There was another theme behind this Fourth of July celebration, aside from the obvious one.

Within just a few minutes of the festival beginning, we already heard the phrase "Cherry Hill strong" several times.

"That's what we're here for. We're here to celebrate our community, and we want to show the unity and how it brings us together," Asia Webster, one of the organizers, said.

The 8th Annual Cherry Hill Arts & Music Waterfront Festival kicked off in the mid-afternoon heat. It goes until 10 p.m. tonight. The fireworks are at 9:30, overlooking the Patapsco River. There's food, fun for the kids, live music, and art. One of the vendors was aptly named, "Cherry Hill Strong," a nonprofit neighborhood revitalization group.

"The community named us; we didn’t name ourselves. This is a universal mantra of everybody in Cherry Hill. We’re fortunate to have become a part of that. It has very much already been the attitude and mindset of the people that live here, that they are Cherry Hill Strong, and we are their representatives to bring forth their vision of what they want to see in their neighborhood," said Natasha Muhammad, one of the organization's directors.

Muhammad says this festival is the perfect opportunity for the community to get together.

"It magnifies the beauty, and is symbolic of what Cherry Hill really is - a very peaceful community, a waterfront community, a very historic black community that has so many great residents and leaders and it just personifies all that we are."

People visiting from out of town would agree too.

Lisa Thomas, owner of Half & Half Water Ice, based in Philadelphia, said: "I love the people, the atmosphere, the kids, they really enjoy our water ice. We're from Philly and last year when we came, a lot of people said they'd never tasted water ice, and we just love to see the happiness on their face when they taste it."

We met 10 year-old Ehsan Adouane visting Baltimore for a Johns Hopkins summer program. He quickly found his groove with this group of drummers.

"It feels like it's in my blood, I just feel it. Because I'm originally from North Africa, and I just feel it."

(Adouane kindly asked us to plug his YouTube channel , where he posts videos about coding and science.)

For Namibia El, her visit to the festival in South Baltimore last year was a happy accident, that is now becoming a tradition.

"It's funny because it popped up on my Facebook and said 'Cherry Hill.' And I live near Cherry Hill, New Jersey. So I actually thought it was closer. You had Monie Love, an artist who I absolutely love, old-school hip-hop. It was free, so I said, 'ok, I'll come.' And I enjoyed the vibe, and I said this year I wanted to come as a vendor."

Sherron Jernigan got a spot early with her sister and niece. They planned to camp out all day, waiting for the fireworks tonight.

“I love it. It’s a nice gathering. It’s gotten larger. And I was just thinking, I hope they continue it for a very long time to come.”

On the "Cherry Hill Strong" theme, Jernigan said: "I grew up here in Cherry Hill. We’re not going nowhere. We’re stronger than ever, and we’re moving forward with the times.”