STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
If you’re looking for “maximum fun for your Fourth of July,” look no further than Hailey and its Hailey Days of the Old West
So says none other than the Los Angeles Times, circulation 654,000.
The newspaper just ran an article on Sunday, June 17, touting the best places to celebrate America’s 242nd birthday. And Hailey made the cut.
“These may not be the biggest or have the flashiest fireworks, but these are places with character—and filled with characters, as well,” wrote April Orcutt of the selections.
Orcutt called Hailey Days of the Old West a “six-day old-fashioned Independence Day bash that includes a pancake breakfast at the Grange Hall, two antiques markets, a 5K fun run, live music, a rodeo, a parade on Main Street with marching bands, lots of horses, decorated cars, Smokey Bear and fireworks synchronized to music.”
She didn’t quite get it right with marching bands—Hailey’s band usually rides on the back of a flatbed truck. But the rest sounded about right, although the article failed to mention the Wood River Land Trust’s Riverfest at Draper Preserve.
This year’s parade theme is “Stars & Stripes Forever,” and The Chamber is recruiting parade entries for the event, which attracts more than 10,000 guests and visitors.
“The Hailey Days of the Old West 4th of July celebration is a signature event for Hailey and the valley, said Chamber Director Mary Austin Crofts. “We had 87 entries in our parade last year. We particularly want to get history and equestrians back into the event.”
To enter, visit www.haileyidaho.com or call 208-788-3484.
Other Independence Day events that sound particularly fun, according to the article, include:
- Incline Village, Nev., where the Red White and Tahoe Blue Celebration features a rubber duck race.
- The 99th Cody Stampede and Fourth of July Festivities
- Grandby, Colo.’s Back to the Beach theme inviting spectators to dress in 1950s beach togs.
- Portland, Ore.’s Waterfront Blues Festival, billed as the largest celebration of blues, souls, funk, rhythm and blues and zydeco music west of the Mississippi.
- The Seafair Summer Fourth at Seattle with its fireworks over Lake Union
- Aspen’s Old Fashioned Fourth of July with ragtime music and a family-and-canine run (no fireworks this year because of high fire danger in Colorado).
- South Lake Tahoe, Calif., with its Lights on the Lake.
- Half Moon Bay, Calif., with its Pooches on Parade, featuring mutts and owners dressed in red, white and blue (no fireworks here, either).