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 Monday, July 7, 2008 2:55 PM CDT |
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Celebrate July 4th with a twist
So you're not a Yankee Doodle (do or die). And, heaven knows, you weren't born on the Fourth of July. Yet you have to get through the holiday somehow. We here at GO! just hate to see undue holiday angst inflicted on anyone. Most of all upon our loyal readers. With that in mind, we've compiled an array of offerings that might be considered slightly alternative to the norm -- all the better to add a little kick to the standard regimen of cookouts, parades and pyrotechnics. Who knows: At the end of the day, you just might wind up wishing you WERE born on the Fourth of July. Stretching the point Up Streator-way, the area's most distended Fourth of July celebration is already into its fifth or sixth day as we speak. The epic event, which dubs itself as "Streator's Fourth: America's Best," doesn't play by the usual rules -- from stretching its celebration over more than a week to hoarding what it bills as "downstate Illinois' biggest and best" fireworks display" until the day AFTER the Fourth of July. That's right: the largest will come latest, at dusk Saturday, July 5, at the Streator High School football field. About that "largest" billing: Several other downstate pyrotechnical displays also claim that title, including Peoria's riverfront "Red, White and Boom" blowout, set for dusk on the holiday's namesake. The rivalry even attracted the eye of the Chicago Tribune a year ago, which quoted a Peoria official as saying, "I would put our show against their show any time. Bring it on!," and a Streator official responding with "Ohhh? The guy in Peoria said, 'bring it on'? Well you can tell him ... if he comes to our show, we'll learn him something about fireworks!" And may the best-lit fuse win. Red, white and food The surest bet for quadrupling your cholesterol levels in 15 minutes or less is, as ever, Illinois' biggest Fourth of July event involving calories and the people who ingest them. That would be Chicago's annual salute to trans-fatty oils, greasy fingers and elevated blood pressures, Taste of Chicago, which opened last weekend and climaxes today through Sunday in Grant Park downtown. Attendance routinely surpasses the 3 million mark, so don't worry about witnesses reporting back to local authorities as you pork your way through the foodstuffs served up by more than 70 Windy City eateries. The Taste's big fireworks display comes tonight, not Friday, with a Grant Park Orchestra concert preceding it. Other free Taste concerts of note: Gomez, Old 97s and Alejandro Escovedo, 3 p.m. Friday; Bonnie Raitt, 5:30 p.m. Saturday; Aly & AJ, A Cursive Memory and Keke Palmer, 2 p.m. Sunday. Calorie-intake times: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. today, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. Holiday spark-tacular For those who think the folks behind The Pantagraph's Holiday Spectacular don't know how to observe other holidays with quite the same moxie, we say, for shame -- you clearly haven't been spending enough quality Fourth time in Miller Park the last several years. In what has become the Spectacular crew's second big showing of the year -- The Pantagraph's Celebrate America! -- the Miller Park Bandstand is now the Twin Cities' focal point for patriotic, flag-waving fervor come Independence Day. Not to mention Independence Day Eve. At 7 p.m. Thursday (translation: for those who don't want to brave the Miller Park fireworks masses) and 7 p.m. Friday, the show mixes songs, dance, theater and some local celebrities into a patriotic potpourri guaranteed to put the Dandy back in your Yankee Doodle. Speaking of which: Friday's park events include the annual Park 2 Park 5-Miler run (from Miller to Normal's Fairview Park), 7:30 a.m.; a Miller Park Zoo celebration with extended hours (admission window open until 6 p.m., zoo grounds cleared at 7 p.m.); and the big fireworks blast around 9 p.m. Flaming of the shrew Fireworks can be discussed literally -- as in the tubes of pressurized gunpowder launched skyward. And fireworks can be discussed metaphorically -- as in anything explosive that sets our adrenaline pumping. For the metaphorically minded, why not spend the holiday weekend basking in the glow of the thespian pyrotechnics of the 31st annual Illinois Shakespeare Festival, which lit its fuse last weekend. Though the festival stage at Ewing Manor will be dark July 4, there are sparkling performances on either side of it: "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)," at 7:30 p.m. tonight and Sunday, and "The Taming of the Shrew," at 8 p.m. Saturday. Cheap tricks 'n' treats As part of its riverfront Fourth of July celebration, "Red, White & Boom," Peoria is bringing in a couple of big concert guns to shoot off on either side for the annual "largest downstate fireworks display" (are you listening, Streator?). The first trigger will be pulled at 8 tonight with a concert by Rockford rock legends Cheap Trick, who'll be preceded by opening act The Avatars. Tickets are $35 at the gate. The gun comes out of the holster again, at 8 p.m. Saturday, with an equal-time concert for country fans -- this one sporting Diamond Rio, with opening act Tin Horse. Advance tickets are $25; at the gate, they're $30. Swept away If you're curious to see what happens when two of the Midwest's biggest Fourth of July weekend festivals get upstaged by flooded rivers, head either north or south. In Davenport, Iowa, the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival (through Saturday) has been relocated from the riverfront LeClaire Park to the streets of downtown Davenport. Moving with the fest are headliners like Koko Taylor, Elvin Bishop, Otis Taylor and Denise LaSalle. In St. Louis, the equally besieged Fair St. Louis (formerly the Veiled Prophet Fair) has been forced from the Mississippi waters beyond the Gateway Arch, up, up and way to the Soldier's Memorial Area downtown. Dates are Friday and Saturday, with the VP Parade at 10 a.m. Friday, and nightly fireworks and concerts. From 1776 to 76 trombones Stay-at-home types who'd prefer to celebrate their independence by not joining the masses are certainly free to do so. America is the land of the free-to-do-so, after all. Luckily, the history-minded film archivists at cable's Turner Classic Movies are making sure the holiday doesn't go unobserved for the armchair flag-wavers among us. In an epic back-to-back programming maneuver, TCM has slated the three best musicals with a Fourth of July sparkle to them: "The Music Man" (1962), 7 p.m., which we'd tune into any day just to see Hermione Gingold and the girls form a Grecian urn at River City, Iowa's, big Fourth fete; "1776" (1972), 10 p.m., the most Fourth-specific musical of them all; and "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942), 1 a.m., sporting that human dynamo known as James Cagney in his most beloved role. License to scoop Granted, politicians tend to view Fourth of July celebrations with roughly the same indifference a starving man would a free all-you-can-eat buffet. But at Springfield's annual Capital City Celebration, the hand-shaking, pamphleteering protocol gets its comeuppance, sort of. The downtown fete, from 3:30 p.m. to midnight Friday, is staged on and around the Illinois State Capitol grounds, with the usual suspects in tow (fireworks, entertainment, etc.). But where else, we ask, can you be served a bowl of free ice cream from the man whose name adorns your driver's license? That's the opportunity that'll be available when Secretary of State Jesse White takes scoop in hand at his annual ice cream social, slated for the early evening hours. Tip: If he asks to see your driver's license, better fork it over. Big blastsFollowing is a list of area towns and their scheduled celebrations: Twin Cities Bloomington: "Celebrate America" concert, extended zoo hours, fireworks sky concert; Friday; Miller Park. Normal: Aquatic center early bird swim (9-11 a.m.) and celebration (noon-5 p.m.), with fireworks sky concert; Friday; Fairview Park. Area Atlanta: Fireworks, Friday; Atlanta ballpark. Bellflower: Parade (10 a.m.), music, fireworks, more; Friday; downtown and Depot Park. Champaign: Parade (1 p.m., Lincoln & Nevada streets) and entertainment-fireworks (7 p.m., Parkland College Dodds Field); Friday. Chenoa: House decorating contest and evening street dance, tonight; flea market, parade and fireworks, Friday; flea market, Saturday; downtown and City Park, Chenoa. Clinton: Fireworks, Friday, Weldon Springs State Recreation Area. Decatur: Art fair, multiple entertainment stages, live theater, music, nightly fireworks, food, more; 10 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; Nelson Park. Downs: 3-on-3 basketball tournament, fireworks, more; Friday Dooley Park. Dwight: Games, contests, food, drawings, fireworks; 5 p.m.-dusk Friday; Dwight Grade School. Eureka: Inflatable park, breakfast, parade (10 a.m.), fishing derby, games, entertainment, fireworks; Friday; Lake Eureka Park. Farmer City: Games, community band concert, street dance, 6 p.m.-dusk tonight, Farmer City Park; fireworks at dusk, Friday, Farmer City Fairgrounds. Heyworth: Fishing derby, mud volleyball, softball tourney, live entertainment, fireworks; 6:45 a.m.-dusk Friday; Centennial Park. Hopedale: Parade (10 a.m.), car show, fireworks; Friday; downtown and Hopedale Park. Lake Bloomington: Flotilla (3 p.m.) and fireworks, Friday. LeRoy: Kids' parade, fireworks; 6 p.m. Friday; L.A. McKean Memorial Field. Lincoln: Sidewalk sales, music and dancing, fireworks at dusk (Friday at Lincoln Park District); today through Saturday; downtown. Mahomet: Games and entertainment, 3-10 p.m. Friday; Lake of the Woods Park. Metamora: God & Country concert and events, July 4, Metamora Park Bandstand. Mount Pulaski: Downtown events and fireworks at dusk, Friday. Paxton: Games and fireworks, Friday, Pells Park. Peoria: Fireworks sky concert, Friday, downtown riverfront. Pontiac: Municipal band concert and fireworks, Friday, downtown and Pontiac Elks Lodge grounds. Sibley: Parade (1 p.m.), house decorating contest, 3-on-3 basketball tournament, more; Friday; downtown. Springfield: Concert, food vendors, children's activities, ice cream social, fireworks, more; Friday; Illinois State Capitol lawn. Streator: Week-long celebration today through Sunday, with fireworks Saturday (Streator High School football field); various locations. Towanda: Antique flea market, food, games, parade, spaghetti supper, fireworks; 9 a.m.-dusk Friday; North and South parks. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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