NORWICH – This Fourth of July weekend, families from across the Chenango area will visit the county fairgrounds to enjoy the rides, food, and fireworks at this year’s third annual Norwich Fireman’s Field Days event.
“It just wouldn’t be the Fourth of July without fireworks,” said one of the event’s co-chairmen, Wayne Law.
The Norwich Career Firefighter’s Union has again expanded the traditional Fourth of July fireworks display into a two-day extravaganza featuring amusement rides, concessions and the talents of local musicians.
Friday starts with a car cruise-in from 5 to 8 p.m., with the event including a carnival midway and dozens of booths for vendors, eateries and non-profit organizations. There’s even a beer tent.
To gain admission on Friday, residents will only need to donate a non-perishable food item. Amusement rides will open at 5 p.m. and run until midnight.
On Saturday, the fairgrounds will open at noon with non-stop live music, a car rollover derby and the traditional fireworks display beginning at dark, put on by Majestic Fireworks.
“The fireworks show goes for about 45 minutes, starting at about 9:30. Just look out your window at that time the night before the event to see when it’s getting dark, and it’ll let you know when they kick off Saturday,” said Law.
This year’s new event, the car rollover derby, will feature a number of local drivers taking their vehicles into the air in an attempt to spin out more rolls than their competitors. Judges said they would take the spectators’ reaction into account for the scoring – the crowds in the stands can put in their two cents by applauding as loud as they can for their favorite performer.
Admission for Saturday’s event will be $5 per person and any child 12 or younger gets in for free. The gate ticket will include admission to the rollover event and access to the live bands for no additional cost.
“To me, the admission price of five dollars is a great deal. I don’t think you’ll be able to find anything better anywhere else. We understand these are hard times for some folks; it is for us too, so we’ve tried to make it as least expensive as possible,” Law said.
The first coordinator for the field day event and fireworks display coordinator for the last 8 years, event co-chair Mike Powell said this year marked a new approach to the occasion with an extra emphasis on the community.
“This year for the first time we’ve decided to use all local bands for the event,” he said. Powell explained that in the past, firefighters only charged a donation of money or food for admission, but as the event has grown and the cost of doing business continues to rise, they decided to charge for Saturday’s programs. To help make the cost as low as possible, Powell said, firefighters turned toward the community, searching for musicians and vendors.
“It began with just the food donation or money donation, but unfortunately the sponsorship has sort of began to dry up recently,” added Law.
Last year’s event drew over 3,500 people to the fairgrounds and Law said he expected a similar if not larger gathering this weekend.
The event is run by volunteers from the Norwich Fire Department, County Fire Police and several other non-profit groups.
The only fundraising firefighters will be doing at the event is a boot collection drive Saturday. Firefighters will be walking car to car looking for donations.