After over a year of large-scale public event cancellations due to COVID, Savannah was wide open for the Fourth of July celebrations this year.
The centerpiece event, the annual Independence Day fireworks show, was back on this year, and the city offered a $5 flat rate for all parking garages to encourage folks to come downtown.
Sunday morning, River Street was already starting to fill out. Over at Plant Riverside, staffers were setting up for the final day of a full weekend of events. PR hosted live music every night since Friday, all leading up to the big show before the fireworks Sunday night: a performance by Savannah Cirque, a local aerial fitness and performance group.
Each evening ended with an “America The Beautiful” themed fountain show designed by William Austin Smith, featuring music by the Savannah Children’s Choir and the Wilde School of Music.
Outside the hotel near one of the fountains, a group of about 40 people gathered, wearing all white. It was the Demery family, who decided to have their annual family vacation in Savannah this year.
The Demery family is originally from South Carolina, but they’ve spread across the country over the last couple of generations. Charles Demery came down from Maryland for the trip.
Charles, who was elected as the impromptu spokesperson for the group, said it was wonderful to be able to see everyone after a year of mostly online communication.
“It’s absolutely great to have the opportunity to reconnect. We’ve done the Zoom meetings for the last year, as I’m sure most families have,” Demery said. “It’s been so good to reconnect face to face, and be with each other again, to do what we love doing, which is just interacting and spending time with your family.”
“It’s nice to have a breath of normalcy post-COVID,” Demery said.
Over on the east side of River Street, Thomas Mitchem, in an American flag shirt, was playing his saxophone for passersby, when a group made up of a couple of families walked by.
Mitchem lowered his sunglasses and began to play the tune of “Baby Shark,” much to the delight of the children of the Garcia and Ferrara families, who stopped for a moment to dance and sing along.
As noon approached, even more music echoed off the buildings along River Street. The Parris Island Marine Band drew a crowd outside on West River Street as people took photos and danced along.
Ryan Brewer and his son Owen, 2, were enjoying the fountains outside Plant Riverside with new friends Bryan Moreland and his son, Elijah, 2 and a half.
As the two ran through the fountains, toy cars and dump trucks in hand, Brewer said he would probably be back at the same spot later Sunday night to watch the fireworks.
“We’ll probably just come down here, it’s very nice to have such a kid-friendly area. And I know they’re gonna have a band and a barbecue area, so we’ll probably just come down here and hang out after his nap.”
Moreland, on the other hand, said he’d be taking the route of grilling out in the backyard in Pooler, having a pool party with the family.
“I’m hoping we find ourselves heading back towards normalcy after this,” Moreland said. “We’re starting to turn in the right direction.”
Will Peebles is the enterprise reporter for Savannah Morning News. He can be reached at wpeebles@gannett.com and @willpeeblessmn on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: River Street crowded for July 4th, first large-scale Savannah event since pandemic started
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