Pittsburgh area celebrates Fourth of July with parades

CANONSBURG, Pa. (KDKA) – The Pittsburgh area celebrated the Fourth of July holiday with parades.

Communities like Canonsburg, Latrobe, Brentwood and Leetsdale had parades, and many places will have fireworks later .

Canonsburg celebrates with state's second-largest parade

Thousands of people watched as Canonsburg celebrated America's 248th birthday Thursday. It's the second-largest Independence Day parade in Pennsylvania and it's right in our backyard.

The parade has been going on for 61 years and as is tradition here in Canonsburg, people come down, find the chairs they've left and get ready for the big show.

"I love it and so does everyone else," Helen Navrotski of Canonsburg said. "That's why we all do it. That's why we're up early at 7 o'clock in the morning, you know."

Navrotski is one of plenty who file in along West Pike Street for this parade every year. Bagpipes, police cars and military Jeeps moved through the route Thursday.

They do it big here, everything down to the sheer crowd size. Canonsburg Mayor David Rhome said they expected over 60,000 people to come to the borough to watch the parade.

For many, it's a chance to sport their red white and blue. It's also a chance to come together as a community.

"It grew enormously year after year after year after year," Navrotski said. "It's just a tremendous tradition – and you can't break tradition."

Latrobe's parade is about fun, family and tradition

It's a tradition that has been going on for decades: if it is the Fourth of July, then Latrobe, Pennsylvania, is having a parade.

From bag pipes to marching bands from fire trucks to Shriner cars and even Bigfoot, American pride and tradition was on full display on Thursday in downtown Latrobe.

Thousands of people, both young and old, lined the sidewalks of Ligonier Street to watch the parade pass by -- folks like George Cunningham, who grew up in a building right along the parade route.

"I mean this is community support here," said Cunningham. "This is people coming together, whatever their differences may be, everybody is here and enjoying what we got."

Many people have been coming to this parade for years and many veteran parade-goers came down on Wednesday afternoon and evening to reserve their spot along the route.

"We were here last night, from 5 to 8 p.m.," said Kelly Myers. "Painting toenails on the lawn, setting our chairs out, and ordering pizza. Shoutout to Gino's!"

In all, it was a beautiful day in this neighborhood, but most of all, it was a day for a great small town American tradition and passing that tradition on to the next generation.

"You know, coming here as a kid was one of my favorite memories of summer," said local attorney Michael Quatrini. "And now to bring my two daughters here and celebrate the goodness of Latrobe and our country in general, it's a wonderful recollection of my childhood to them."

If you missed the parade, there is still Fourth of July fun to be had in Latrobe both Thursday and Friday. There is a big festival at Legion-Kenner Park with food trucks, carnival games, raffles, fireworks and more. These Fourth of July festivities are free and open for everyone to attend.