Fairview holds annual Independence Day celebration under new planning committee

FAIRVIEW, W.Va. (WBOY) — In the spirit of Independence Day this year, there are plenty of events going on in the Town of Fairview featuring some fresh new ideas thanks to its brand new planning committee.

According to Fairview July 4th Committee Director Austin Boylen, the town has put on an Independence Day celebration every year since 1976 under the direction of its old committee. However, this year, a brand new committee was formed to put Thursday’s event together for the first time.

Boylen told 12 News that the new committee changed some things around, bringing in some different bands and adding activities for kids to participate in like bounce houses brought in from Cartoon Headquarters, as well as a dinosaur ride and other toys for sale.

There were also food truck vendors at the event as well as a dunk tank where people could get a chance to submerge local leaders underwater.

“It’s special to everybody that sits on the committee because we all attended this as kids, and we had a ball,” said Boylen. “So now, we just wanna see all the kids now have as much fun as what we used to have. So we’re hoping all the kids today have a great time–all the families get to come out and have fun.”

The celebration started in the morning with the Ray Hetrick Memorial 5k run, before the parade kicked off at 10 a.m. Boylen said that the Fairview Community Band came by to perform at the celebration and that four other acts would also be performing throughout the day.

In addition to that, the 2024 Fairview Independence Day celebration includes a cornhole tournament, a hotdog-eating contest, a car show and a water battle. To close things out, the city is having its grand fireworks display at 10:30 p.m.

Boylen said that the planning committee struggled a bit to make everything work logistically this year, but he felt that it was a learning experience for them. He added that everybody on the team had previous event planning experience, particularly due to hosting previous Christmas events in Fairview.

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