The Festival of America will feature live entertainment and fireworks off the top of Grand Coulee Dam on July 4th.
The entertainment, food and special craft vendors, and viewing of the Laser Light Show and fireworks are great from the park below the Visitor Center at the dam.
Here is our guide to the event:
A festival, fireworks off the top of the Grand Coulee Dam, a splash park for kids, live entertainment, a huge national art quilt show …
Check it all out in our Festival of America 2016 guide:
Celebration planned for 4th of July
Everyone likes a good, old-fashioned Fourth of July celebration.
You can enjoy one this week, the “Festival of America” a three-day affair, right here in the Grand Coulee Dam area.
The celebration kicks off on Thursday, July 4, with music in the park below the Visitor Center.
There’s lots to do. A number of craft booths will offer goods and several food booths will fix a summer-time lunch or dinner for you.
The music will take you right up to the Laser Light Show time. And to cap it all off, about 10:30 p.m., there will be the giant fireworks display right off the top of Grand Coulee Dam on July 4.
Music in the park continues Friday and Saturday, as do the craft and food booths, with tours of the dam and Laser Light Show adding to the celebration.
The chamber of commerce has added a number of family-friendly games, good for all ages, at this year’s celebration.
Plus, this year the community will see the debut of the sport of roller derby in this area. Teams from around the state will come for a demonstration skrimmage July 5 at North Dam Park in Grand Coulee.
The Festival of America is sponsored by the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the Coulee Dam Casino, with music arranged for by the town of Coulee Dam.
All the particulars are in a special “Festival of America” celebration section below.
In addition, to all the fun around Grand Coulee Dam, the food and craft booths in the park and great scenery, look for three days of outstanding music when the Grand Coulee Dam Festival of America is celebrated July 2, 3 and 4.
The Town of Coulee Dam is sponsoring the music for the second straight year, and according to Mayor Quincy Snow, the town is offering an outstanding assortment of music for the three-day event.
The venue for the event is the park below the Visitor Center. Music begins Saturday, July 2, with Eric Engebretson at 4 p.m.
Eric E, as he is also known, is familiar to coulee area music fans, having been a regular for several years during the Festival of America celebration. With his voice, guitar and a digital “looper” Eric E can pump out a song from just about any year named back to the first part of the last century.
Snow has scheduled what he calls “happy music” for the night cap with the Mariachi Estrella DeMeico band of Wenatchee. They make their second appearance here, and will be on stage from 6 p.m. until 9:30, just before the 10 p.m. showing of the Laser Light Show.
On Sunday, music begins again at 4 p.m. with Scott Smith and Kayla Taylor, a couple of area favorites. They play country, pop and rock renditions.
At 6 p.m. Campbell Road, a Celtic band, will perform in his first appearance at the festival.
The 8 p.m. appearance of the ever popular Steve Sogura, highlights the evening. His impersonation of Elvis Presley and his music has been a favorite at the festival for years. He will perform until just before the Laser Light Show.
On Monday, July 4, at 4 p.m., Smith and Taylor will be back with their variety of music styles for another two-hour performance.
At 6 p.m., older music lovers will connect with William Florian, former lead singer with the “New Christy Minstrels.” He will perform until 8 p.m., when Sogura will rock the area with a couple of hours of Elvis music.
The concerts, all three days, are free and financed through the town of Coulee Dam’s hotel/motel tax receipts.