County to celebrate July 4th with three-day, county-wide festivities for America’s 250th
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Wadley residents enjoyed the town’s first “4th-a-paloosa” last year with a fireworks show over downtown. – Photo posted by Jesse Land to the Wadley 4th-a-paloosa Facebook page.
The United States of America turns 250 years old this week, and Randolph County is pulling out all the stops to make sure it’s a celebration for the ages.
For the first time in recent memory – and maybe ever – all four towns in the county will dedicate a day to the celebration of America’s independence from Great Britain. The festivities will be spread out over three days, with Wedowee kicking things off with a parade and fireworks show Thursday, Woodland taking its customary spot on Friday, July 3, and Wadley and Roanoke adding celebrations on the day and night of the Fourth on Saturday.
“Everybody can go to as many as they want and not be limited by it all being on the same day,” said Wedowee Merchants Association member Lesia Waldrep.
It’s a 3-day, county-wide celebration worthy of the occasion, and here’s how it will all play out.
July 2
Things start Thursday in Wedowee thanks to the Wedowee Merchants Association.
“We were trying to do it on a different day than anybody else,” Waldrep said.
The group has organized a patriotic parade that will start at 7 p.m. and march right down Highway 431 in front of the county courthouse. There will be prizes awarded for the most patriotic participants.
A fireworks show will begin once darkness settles in.
It’s the second time that the Merchants Association has organized an Independence Day celebration for the town. The first one was in 2024, and there were plans to do it again last year. But the repaving that was going on in full force last summer led organizers to cancel the event.
Now it’s back, and the county seat will be a hive of activity to celebrates America’s 250th.
The fireworks will be shot from behind the courthouse, so folks can watch from pretty much anywhere in and near downtown Wedowee.
“Anywhere downtown should be fine,” Waldrep said. “Anywhere in that proximity should be good.”
The event will also feature food trucks, and local restaurants in downtown Wedowee will be open serving food as well.
There will be live music by Rusty Brown and Richard Murrey leading up to the parade, and local business ownder Al Haynes will have a patriotic presentation before the parade begins.
July 3
Woodland will celebrate Independence Day on July 3, just as they have for the past 16 years.
“Most of the time your plans on the Fourth is going to be barbecuing and cooking out and stuff like that with your family. So we do it on the third,” said Woodland mayor Scott Carter. “It’s always been on the third, and it always will be on the third.”
The events are planned by the Woodland Volunteer Fire Department, which handles the night’s 40-minute fireworks show and also sells chicken barbecue plates as a fundraiser. This year the fire department has already sold over 500 plates, according to Carter.
Woodland typically draws a crowd of up to 3,000 people for its annual July 3 event, and Carter expects a similar number given the magnitude of the semiquincentennial.
“A lot of people from around, even over in Georgia, Carrollton, up north of here, Franklin – they come over here. And we’re going to put on a show,” Carter said.
The outdoor pavilion in downtown Woodland will be the hub the evening’s activities. The band Home Grown will be playing live music, there will be a ceremony to honor the town’s veterans around 6 p.m., and music will resume after that leading up to the fireworks show at dark.
July 4
County residents will have their pick between the second “4th-a-paloosa” in Wadley and the first July 4 event in Roanoke that anyone can remember.
For Wadley the fun starts around 5 p.m. and it will all take place in the main downtown area on Highway 77. Food trucks, live music, activities for kids, and restaurants with their doors open will fill the downtown area leading up to the fireworks show after sundown.
Last year the fireworks were shot from the river bank and were visible to everyone gathered downtown to watch.
In Roanoke the city will have its first organized Fourth of July fireworks show, possibly ever.
“If there was one, it was before my time,” said Roanoke mayor Adam Melton.
The day in Roanoke will start around 2 p.m. when food trucks will set up on Main Street in the downtown area. The first scheduled event will be a prayer vigil on the steps of city hall, and that will be led by the Reverend Calvin Trammell.
The night will continue with a parade that is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. and will travel down Main Street from Chestnut Street toward the Three Points intersection at LaFayette Highway. The parade will finish at the Roanoke Recreation Center on West Point Street and the activities will move into the football stadium at Wright Field, where there will be a prepared program featuring patriotic music and speeches from members of the community.
Once the sun set and darkness arrives, the fireworks will begin. Roanoke will shoot its fireworks from up on the recreation softball fields so that they will be visible to everyone at the football field and in the surrounding neighborhood.
“I’m sure we’re going to have people that sit in the parking lot in their nice, cool cars, and that’s fine,” Melton said. “And you will be able to see it from anywhere from West Point St., Schuessler Street. I don’t know really how far away you’ll be able to see it. But it’s going to be plenty visible.”
For Melton it was important to seize the opportunity to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday and to bring the people of Roanoke together.
“I wanted us to have something. It’s 250 years for this country,” Melton said. “I wanted us to have something nice for that. Plus, our community needed the unity. And I hope this really helps. And I feel like it will because we’ve had so many people call and remind us of things that we forgot. I think we’re going to have a good turnout.”
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