Greenwood’s largest annual festival will be bigger and better this year, city officials said, but festival-goers will have to navigate some changes due to several nearby construction projects.
The city’s Freedom Festival has grown in popularity since it started more than 30 years ago. This year, the city is estimating more than 50,000 people will flock to Greenwood for the event to eat food from local restaurants, watch the parade and gather for fireworks.
In the last year, the city has completed or started construction on multiple projects that will impact the festival:
A roundabout at Smith Valley Road and Madison Avenue and new intersections at Smith Valley and Meridian Street, and Smith Valley and U.S. 31, which was completed last fall but needed additional work and repairs the last couple weeks;
Demolition of the former middle school, which is currently underway;
A new road alongside the Greenwood Public Library dubbed Surina Way;
A new, expansive, multi-million dollar Department of Public Works building, which will take up the entire southeast corner of Craig Park.
That expansion prompted several changes to the downtown park that has been host to festival-goers for years, including removing the only two softball diamonds downtown and turning the southwest corner into a natural amphitheater and event space, which will also include a platform for staging, creating a Department of Public Works campus where the public can hang out during the Freedom Festival.
But that work is not done yet.
One of two stages and several booths will be set up in different locations due to construction of the new public works building at Craig Park. Parade staging will take place in a different location as well due to demolition of the former middle school, where they used to line up, said Molly Laut, Greenwood’s community relations and marketing strategist.
This year, staging will take place along Madison Avenue, between Surina Way and the roundabout at Smith Valley Road, which will be closed to traffic from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Laut said. The entire parade route will be closed from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., she said.
The parade route will be different this year too, because the city wanted to incorporate the new Surina Way, a connector road that runs between Madison and Meridian. The parade will start at Madison and Surina, go up Meridian, west down Broadway Street, turn south on Madison, west on Main past city hall, and down Market Street.
“I think the crowd will be minimally impacted,” Laut said. “The DPW construction in the park is pretty much where our firing zone for the fireworks has always been, so we closed it off anyway to families coming to the park.”
The Kids Zone is also being relocated to the little league fields, and a stage will be located at Our Lady of the Greenwood this year.
“We still have more than 200 vendors. Our Kids Zone is new and expanded; that will be set up in the little league outfield. So those are all cool things,” she said.
The day’s festivities and parade will go on as usual, rain or shine, Laut said. If the fireworks are rained out, the fireworks show will be moved to Sunday at the same time, she said.
For the most part, festival traffic and parking will not change from previous years. The city was determined to get recent repairs to the Madison and Smith Valley roundabout done in time for the festival, said Daniel Johnston, city engineer.
That work was completed this week, said Kevin Steinmetz, capital project manager.
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WHAT: Greenwood Freedom Festival
WHEN: Saturday
Noon: Parade starts
1 p.m. Booths and Kids Zone open
2 p.m. Music starts
3 p.m. Live music starts on amphitheater main stage
7 p.m. Honor our Heroes
10:15 p.m. Fireworks
WHERE: Craig Park, 10 E. Smith Valley Road, Greenwood
TICKETS: Free general admission; VIP is $40 for adults and $10 for kids (12 and under); can be purchased at www.eventbrite.com.
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