Jun 24, 2016
MEDIA ADVISORY
For Immediate Release
For more information, contact:
Cyndy Cerbin
Director of Communications
706/653-9234
ccerbin@nationalinfantryfoundation.org
Columbus, Georgia – June 24, 2016: The National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center will host its fourth annual community-wide Independence Day celebration on Monday, July 4, 2016. Freedom Fest will be held from 11a.m. to 5 p.m., and will be filled with music, kids’ activities, historical reenactments, food, and fun.
Here is the schedule for timed events. All-day activities follow:
9am-5pm Museum Open for Self-Guided Tours Museum
11am Cannon Firing, National Anthem Front Lawn
11am Live Music by The Krissy Andrews Band Front Lawn
11am-3pm Self-guided Tours of World War II Street Tram on Heritage Walk
Noon Pint-Sized Patriots Parade – Sign-in Rotunda
12:30 Silver Wings Parachute Demonstration Team Inouye Field
1pm Live Music by Wolf & Clover Front Lawn
2pm Live Music by The Oneeders Front Lawn
3pm Live Music by Neal Lucas & The Freezer Burn Front Lawn
4pm Live Music by The Shelby Brothers Front Lawn
5pm Head to Uptown Columbus and Phenix City for a concert in the amphitheater and fireworks at dark
All-Day Activities:
Cannon Firings on the Hour Front Lawn
Westville Demonstrations Front Lawn
Festival Food and Drink Parking Lot
Treadstone Climbing Wall Parking Lot
GaCHIP Child ID Kits Grand Hall
Bounce Houses and Games Outside
Balloon Twisting, Krazy Hair, Face Painting, Superheroes Grand Hall
$5 films Giant Screen Theater
Details:
New this year will be interactive demonstrations from the living historians at Historic Westville. The living history museum located in Lumpkin, Georgia, is now closed to the public, but fundraising is underway to enable a move to a 47-acre site near the National Infantry Museum. Some of the 19th century activities at this year’s Freedom Fest include woodworking, blacksmithing, twining and cornhusk dollmaking.
Also new this year: a rock climbing wall suitable for kids aged 6 and up provided by Treadstone Climbing Gym, and an indoor weapons simulator provided by IPKeys Technologies.
The event’s signature live cannon firings are back on the schedule, hourly starting at 11 a.m. The Columbus Historical Reenactors Association will set up a Civil War era campsite. Additional living historians will set up displays inside the museum to allow visitors to touch and learn about both weapons and household items used in our country’s early years.
All day, kids will enjoy bounce houses, face and hair painting, balloon animals and Superheroes. Youngsters are invited to dress up their bicycles, tricycles, and wagons – and themselves! – for the Pint-Sized Patriots Park down Heritage Walk. In the museum’s Grand Hall, parents can get free fingerprint ID kits for their children through the GaCHIP program.
Live bands will perform throughout the day just outside the museum’s rotunda. Large tents will provide seating and shelter from the sun. Weather permitting, the Silver Wings Parachute Demonstration Team will drop in at Inouye Field to announce the winners of the Pint-Sized Patriots Parade.
World War II Company Street will be open for self-guided tours between 11a.m. and 3 p.m. Volunteers will be on hand to help visitors locate names on the Vietnam Wall, and the Memorial Walk of Honor will be open all day.
The Giant Screen Theater will be the perfect place to cool off, with $5 tickets all day. Vendors will sell ice cream, barbecue plates, chicken sandwiches, funnel cakes, hot dogs, hamburgers, pretzels, beer, frozen mocktails and soft drinks. The Fife and Drum restaurant and the Rally Point Canteen concessions stand will be open for diners who’d rather stay indoors.
The museum’s activities will end at 5 p.m. Festival-goers will be encouraged to head to uptown Columbus or Phenix City for a concert in the riverside amphitheater and fireworks at dark.
Admission to Freedom Fest is free. There will be nominal costs for the theater, food and drink. Donations made on July 4th will go toward construction of a new national monument to the Global War on Terrorism, to be located along Heritage Walk. The National Infantry Foundation relies on donations to operate the museum and preserve the artifacts that tell the heroic story of the American Infantryman.
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The National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center at Patriot Park, a 155-acre tract linking Columbus, Georgia, and the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, is the first world-class site to pay tribute to the U.S. Army Infantryman and those who fight alongside him. As the only interactive Army Museum in the United States, the museum showcases the contributions of the Infantry Soldier in every war fought by the U.S. by offering immersive participation and engaging visitors in the unique experiences of the Infantry Soldier. The complex also includes a parade field, memorial walk of honor, Vietnam Memorial Plaza, authentic World War II Company Street and Giant Screen Theater. For more information, visit www.nationalinfantrymuseum.org.