The two-day Twin City Firecracker Festival, held June 25-26, went swimmingly, until rain washed out the final activities planned for the second night of the event, said organizer Barb Lowry, director of sports and marketing events for the city of Festus.
The annual festival was held at Larry G. Crites Memorial Park in Festus, after being canceled in 2020 because of COVID-19.
“Right up until 7 o’clock Saturday night (June 26), I thought things went well,” Lowry said. “That’s when the rain started.”
At Monday night’s Festus City Council meeting, Mayor Sam Richards said he decided to end the fair at that point, calling off the Kentucky Headhunters’ performance and the night’s fireworks show.
“We did have a fireworks show Friday night (June 25),” Lowry said.
Fireworks already had been loaded for the display scheduled for the final night of the event, and they had to be shot off. So, at about 8 p.m., they were fired off in just a few minutes, said Lowry.
That quick firing of fireworks led to calls from some residents concerned about the noise, Ward 4 Councilman Mike Cook said.
Lowry said the canceled fireworks show will not be rescheduled.
She said she felt the city-sponsored festival drew solid crowds, if not as large in years past.
Lowry said she believes wet weather predictions deterred some people from attending.
“I think we had a little bit of a smaller crowd than in the past on Friday,” she said. “We had pretty much normal operations Saturday, until the rains.”
In addition to the June 25 fireworks display, the festival offered live music performances, carnival rides and games, food and craft vendors, fishing derbies, a car show and other activities.
“It was Josh Whaley (Festus parks and recreation director) and my first year as head of it,” Lowry said. “We’re both happy with how it turned out. It was a return to having firecracker festivals.”
An event associated with the festival, the Larry Crites Memorial Firecracker Pickleball Open, was held at Jokerst Memorial Park in Festus and Crystal City Park in Crystal City. Tournament organizer Jim Berger said the scheduled nine-day event beat the rain for all but the final day on Sunday, when all the mixed-doubles matches had to be cancelled.
The tourney drew about 250 participants, Berger said.
“We had, on the Saturday, probably a couple hundred spectators. During the weekdays, we’d have 40 or 50 spectators.”
Lowry said the next city-sponsored activity will be July 12 with the First Monday Food Trucks event, which will be held on the Festus Public Library parking lot, 400 W. Main St., where Missouri PitFire Mobile Barbecue and Dohack’s Snack Shack will sell their wares from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The food truck program is slated to run through November on the first Monday of each month, unless the first Monday falls on the day a holiday is observed.
The next large-scale city-sponsored event on tap is the Blues Funk Festival on Aug. 7 at Larry G. Crites Memorial Park (along Old Hwy. A in Festus). The free concert will feature the music of Hudson and the Hoo Doo Cats and Charles “Skeet” Rodgers.