Fourth of July draws big crowd

KELLOGG — It was a full day of playing and partying in Kellogg last week as part of the Fourth of July celebration.

The festivities really kicked off around noon as folks began setting up for the community market, the Kellogg City Park essentially became ground zero for Independence Day fun as all of the activities seemed to intertwine at the open green space.

A barbecue by the Kellogg Senior Center made the park smell like the Fourth of July to really kick everything off, then came the pets as they paraded down the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes.

Once the music started playing and everyone began shopping, it felt like a music festival was happening in the park.

“The music was awesome,” said Mallory Phillips, Silver Valley Chamber and Community Market coordinator. “John (Kelley) is always great and our new band, Leif Christian and Ticket Sauce really rocked us into the evening.”

From 2 p.m. to well until after the 8 p.m. stopping time, the park was buzzing and that buzz was definitely good for the vendors who set up shop in the park.

“We had roughly 1,000 people wander in and out of the park during the market,” Phillips said. “We had over $11,000 in sales at the market, which is a direct and positive impact on the local community’s economy.”

The market was able to use its supersized edition as a crash course for its new wireless internet system, which was made possible with help from a local computer wiz.

“We really appreciate Derek Furman with Silverline Computer for donating his time and working tirelessly to get that set up,” Phillips said. “Without it, many point-of-sale systems wouldn’t have worked for the vendors in the park. That system was funded by a grant from Avista.”

Elsewhere in the park, the increasingly popular soap hockey tournament gave folks something to watch and do if they felt so inclined.

Hockey organizer Chanse Watson had hoped to see a bigger team turnout, but was happy to watch the kids have something to do, as well as put on a fun show for spectators when it became time for the two signed-up teams to play one another.

"There’s so many different reasons for why the event is fun,” Watson said. “As a player, you get to experience something truly unique and a bit challenging. It’s not like anyone is ‘good’ at soap hockey. You just go out there and try not to fall down while hitting the puck in the right direction. For spectators, there’s no simpler type of comedy than watching someone fall unexpectedly."

It was right around 10 p.m. when the fireworks show took flight from Silver Mountain, the brief show drew a large crowd and was supplemented by the small shows being put on by many of the locals who were waiting for the big show.

Local pyrotechnician Rick Gilbert explained that the show’s brevity was due to an increase in cost for the shells themselves, and not any sort of budget change by Silver Mountain.

“Last year we had the same $5,000 budget we had this year, but due to tariffs and cost increases, we had roughly half the fireworks that we had last year,” Gilbert said.

Overall, the people involved felt that the Fourth of July celebration was a step in the right direction to the continual growth of an event that had been trending downward over the past few years.

“We are just so happy that so many people came out and enjoyed the day with us,” Phillips said. “It was definitely an awesome day for everyone.”