Miley Cyrus, pop singing sensation, will be the main event this Friday at Freedom Festival's Stadium of Fire. The initial batch of 48,000 tickets sold out within hours of being made available in April, but some tickets can still be found on eBay, Facebook and other third party vendors.
Stadium of Fire is the fourth-largest Fourth of July stadium fireworks show in the country, according to the Stadium of Fire Web site. In the past, artists such as Taylor Hicks, Brooks and Dunn, LeeAnn Womack, The Beach Boys and Martina McBride have performed at Stadium of Fire.
"Fireworks scare me so badly," Cyrus said in a conference call.
Cyrus explained she crossed her fingers every time fireworks went off at one of her live performances, but her fear of fireworks won't stop her from performing at the show.
"Anytime I can do a show, I'm so totally excited," Cyrus said.
The Freedom Festival has activities for all ages that will last all day. The Freedom Run will begin at 7 a.m. and will include a 5k, 10k and a one-mile race. Late registration is still available until 6 a.m. the morning of the run.
The Grand Parade will take place at 9 a.m. and will start on University Avenue and end on Center Street. In the past, there have been 250,000 spectators who came to watch the parade.
"The event just keeps getting bigger and bigger," said Chrissy Merrell, executive assistant for the event. "We are expecting close to 300,000 people to come this year."
Spectators are invited to bring chairs and blankets and claim a spot along the parade route. However, no spectators will be allowed to start camping out until 3 p.m. on July 3.
Last year there were 23 floats in the parade. That number has increased to 32 with more than 100 entries total. Fourteen high school marching bands will participate in the parade, as well as a few large helium parade balloons.
"One of the most unique entries we have in the parade is an M-18 tank," Merrell said. "This thing is huge, like 3 tons."
A local war artifact collector owns the tank and will be driving it in the parade.
For information on all the events, visit www.freedomfestival.org.
Copyright Brigham Young University 3 Jul 2008
