Freedom Fest – 4th of July Fest

As I understand it, this is an event that is put on as a joint venture between the villages of Elmwood Park and Oak Park (I think River Forest might be involved as well).
The family and I made the trek to this fest on the 4^th for the fireworks. I am not sure if there is designated parking for the event (it did not look like it) but we just ended up parking on a side street almost a mile away like everyone else (most streets are parking for residents only and have police directing traffic but if you park far enough away you should be ok). The walk there was fine at about 8:30 when we started.
The place (which is the field and other areas around the Elmwood Park High School) was packed and there was more people coming all the time. I highly recommend bringing folding chairs, blankets, water, and food if you need something to eat. There was a live band playing the usual hits and there was about four or five booths selling alcohol (id’s checked by the police department), pizza slices, snow cones and cotton candy, and those annoying blinking trinkets everyone needs to have…(otherwise there was not much of anything in the way of vendors so again come prepared).
We were able to get a nice spot in the grass to set up. Thankfully, it was a little cooler on the grass and I did not get eaten alive by mosquitoes as is usually the case.
The fireworks started at 9:28 and ended about 9:48 so about twenty minutes though everyone in our group thought it seemed longer. The fireworks were well done overall and we thought the finale was spectacular (the music was ok but not anything fancy or coordinated like Chicago’s (Grant Parks) fireworks are though of course they were cancelled this year so it was a moot point). Everyone enjoyed the fireworks and the grounds and we will probably be going again. We highly recommend this event if they host again in 2012.