By MICHAEL BOYLAN
Weekend Editor

Who knew when we as a nation defeated the British that we would still be celebrating with food, drink and fireworks more than 200 years later?

The Fourth of July is a day for all Americans to realize the efforts of the country's forefathers to secure independence for the people and each city hosts its own celebration to pay respects.

Locally, the entertainment will be focused in Peachtree City. The weekend's festivities kick off with The Swingin' Medallions in concert at the Frederick Brown Jr. Amphitheater.

They will take the stage at 8 p.m., regaling the crowd with their brand of beach music/party rock. Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for children. The next day will be the official celebration of the Fourth of July, even though it will be July 3.

The parade will be in Peachtree City at 10 a.m. Golf carts, groups, marching bands and more will take to the streets, strutting their patriotic stuff. The parade route begins at Booth Middle School. Later that evening, the Peachtree Wind Ensemble community band will take the stage at the amphitheater to perform a free concert. The show will begin at 7 p.m., followed by the fireworks display, which can be seen around Lake Peachtree.

The beauty of the holiday is that it usually gives us a long weekend, long enough for a road trip with the family. There are plenty of events taking place elsewhere over the weekend as well.

Callaway Gardens is hosting a celebration on the Fourth, including games, circus performances from Florida's Flying High Circus, as well as miniature golf, miniature train rides, biking, hiking, food and the music of the Fabulous Expressions. Admission is $12 for adults and $6 for children ages 6-12. Children under 5 are admitted free.

Westville in Lumpkin, Ga. also offers festivities over the weekend. Westville is a living history museum of the 1850s. Saturday, the facility will host an old-fashioned barbecue, as well as games for the whole family, including three-legged races and watermelon seed spitting contests.

There also will be a vintage baseball game for the crowd to participate in, featuring old time rules, equipment and uniforms. The blacksmith's anvil will be buried and blown into the sky with dynamite every hour on the hour to celebrate another year of independence.

Admission is $4 for students and $8 for adults. Call 1-888-SEE-1850.

If you're looking into leaving the state for your holiday weekend, you may want to consider Tennessee. Gatlinburg will host its 23rd annual Fourth of July Midnight Parade. All sorts of entertainment will begin at 11:45 p.m. along the parkway and Highway 321. The parade will start at 12:01 a.m. July 4. This year's theme is “Smoky Mountain Millennium: Showing our colors and celebrating our past, present and future.”

Also in Tennessee will be the train ride on the Tennessee Valley Railroad to the Chickamauga Pops in the Park. The Pullman train will leave the Tennessee Valley Railroad depot at 4:30 p.m. and will travel to the Chickamauga Battlefield. There will be music from the Eighth Georgia Regiment Band, a Civil War period band, before the Chattanooga Symphony plays.

Pops in the Park has been hosted for 24 years. The concert and the fireworks are free and the train will depart 15 minutes after the fireworks display. Coach seating is $35, seating in the Pullman section is $43 and a private Pullman compartment is $45. Call 267-8583.

These are just several options for the holiday weekend. Many cities and parks in Georgia will host Fourth of July festivities and the decision is up to you and your friends and family.

Enjoy the weekend and remember to be careful; accidents tend to go up on holiday weekends. Personally, my friends and I are dressing up as the forefathers of this country and reenacting historical moments such as the signing of the Declaration of Independence and Washington crossing the Delaware, but that's just a typical weekend.

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