Downtown Havre de Grace was filled with patriotic spirit and visitors Sunday, as people lined Union Avenue to wait for the Independence Day Parade or strolled toward the carnival at Millard Tydings Park.
The annual parade got under way early Sunday afternoon, with vendors, floats, marchers and dancers streaming from the north end of Union Avenue to its southern end, ending at Tydings Park. The parade, gaps and all, went on for more than two hours on an incredible day with temperatures in the low to mid 70s, the coolest many parade goers could remember.
The Independence Celebration committee recently put out a call for new leadership, as its organizers hope to step back from the event after this year, but the parade seemed to go off without a hitch once again and the carnival rolled on.
People set up chairs and some blankets to watch the parade. Some got a higher view from inside the University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Harford Memorial Hospital parking garage, and a few watched from the windows of houses or offices.
The parade included more than 20 musical groups and everything from tanks and military vehicles to marching bands with wooden rifles and flags, as well as plenty of community organizations and personalities. The crowd favorites were the pounding drums and the throbbing dancers of marching units such as The New Edition Legacy, the East Side Westsiders and the Baltimore All-Stars, groups that seemingly tried to top the similar units that had marched in front of them.
Other popular marching units were long-time drum and bugle corps like the Skyliners, the Archer-Epler Musketeers and the Reading Buccaneers.
Vulcan Materials Company brought in a patriotic bulldozer, while Port Deposit's Boy Scout Troop 555 waved from a float with a model vehicle race and Perryville's Cub Scout Troop 144 rode on a Cecil County fire truck.
Floats included a giant cow from Turkey Hill Dairy and a model Concord Point Lighthouse, driven by the Friends of Concord Point Lighthouse organization.
The Steppingstone Farm Museum featured an agriculture-themed float called "From Man to Machine," complete with a rooster in a coop.
Viewers tapped their feet along to the beats of marching bands like the Carolina Gold Drum & Bugle Corps and Fusion Drum & Bugle Corps, and they clapped along to more old-fashioned sounds like the Tri-State Gospel Singers, the Penn Dixie Band and the Westminster Municipal Band.
The day was set to be capped with a fireworks display from Tydings Island later in the evening.
The parade once again brought in newcomers and regular attendees.
James Gamble, of Towson, came to the parade with his family and said he was enjoying it, noting he usually watches fireworks for the Fourth of July.
"It looks like a nice parade," he said about his first time at the Havre de Grace festivities. "It's more of a down-home feeling, very relaxing, good to get away from the city."
Havre de Grace's George Earl was one of the people for whom the event is a tradition.
Tapping his feet as a band launched into The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army," Earl commented: "Makes me want to drum again."
He said he was in a band growing up and hopes the city can keep the parade going for years to come.
"It's great entertainment. I like all of it, I really do," he said, calling it a "very positive" event. "I just like the excitement of a parade. I take off work to come to it."
Earl was even looking forward to getting a candy apple and cotton candy.
"That's the kid in me," he said with a smile.
Deborah Arrington, also of Havre de Grace, said she had been away from the event for years, but "it seems like it's getting bigger every year."
Aberdeen's Brenda King agreed the event reminds people of childhood and happiness.
"Parades bring out the kid in you. It's the fun and excitement in you," she said, adding it brings neighborhoods and friends together.
"Everybody's coming together," she said.