Fourth of July Festivities in Brewster

BREWSTER – The city’s Independence Day celebration, Tuesday, July 4, featured an attraction for every age and taste from a pancake breakfast in the morning, to free public swimming and parade in the afternoon and fireworks after dark. In between, vendors in Columbia Cove Park sold food and souvenirs to the increasing numbers of spectators arriving for the evening show.

A variety of wailing sirens and honking horns announced the parade proceeding west down Main Street at 4 p.m. Spectators were showered with candy and even a little water from the Douglas Okanogan Fire District 15 water tender. Gebbers Farms staffers handed out sample bags of fresh cherries.

In the soccer field adjacent to the rec center and pool, celebrants set off their legal fireworks under the watchful eyes of fire district personnel, and by the time the official barrage began at 10 p.m., a veil of smoke from all the whiz-bangs covered the area.

David Ciccanti, from Bellevue, with son Alex, 11, and the rest of family were among those setting off rockets in the park.

“We’ve come here every year since 2010 for the Fourth of July,” said Alex, who will turn 12 on July 20. “And we’ll be back next year.”

So will lots of other folks.