Three-Day Freedom Fest Starts Friday

Kosciusko County’s three-day Freedom Fest will kick of Friday in celebration of the nation’s 250th birthday.
Kosciusko County America 250 Coordinator Mike Loher said former Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb put together an America 250 commission to help celebrate the milestone.
Loher said the three-day event in Kosciusko County was intentionally called Freedom Fest “because if this goes well, maybe we want to do this next year.” Freedom Fest was also intentionally not put on July 4 because “we want this to be something for everybody to participate in and we did not want to be in competition with 4th of July traditions.”
He said America’s 250th birthday was an opportunity for Warsaw and Kosciusko County to shine and do some good “and bring some folks to town and try to be te go-to place for northern Indiana to celebrate America’s birthday.”
In order to prepare for Freedom Fest, Loher’s nonprofit, ML Community Impact Alliance, helped initiate improvements at the fairgrounds.
“So we decided that when we were going to have the Freedom Fest out here, the venue was not in the condition that we would like it to be in to celebrate America’s 250th birthday. It’s quite a milestone and so we needed a place we could be proud of,” he said.
Members of the Alliance talked with the Kosciusko County Fair Board about them cleaning up the fairgrounds if they donated the use of the land for Freedom Fest. Not only will the fairgrounds be cleaned up for Freedom Fest, it will also be cleaned up for the county fair.
Core Mechanical fabricated, powder coated and installed new handrails at the racetrack area. Boards were replaced in the seating area at the racetrack area, as well. As of Monday morning, there were some steps and miscellaneous items at the racetrack area that still needed to be painted. The entire track was regraded. Everything was power washed in the grandstands. Grass was also reseeded in some areas. Three dumpsters of trash were picked up and hauled away. Five hundred tons of limestone were donated and the area behind the food stands was restoned, and there was some work done in the main parking lot. There also was some work done between a couple 4-H buildings.
Scheduled Events
As part of the event, Loher said it is planned to have the nation’s largest free-flying American flag raised around noon Friday on the midway at the fairgrounds, where most of Freedom Fest will be. He said he saw this flag at an antique tractor show in Rantoul, Ill., and it’s owned by a veterans organization. The flag is 65 feet by 125 feet.
“It will give you chills to see this thing,” he said.
Loher also talked about what people can expect for the rest of Freedom Fest.
On Friday and Saturday, there will be a veterans recognition wall on the midway. Loher said they want “folks that have pictures of their veterans to bring them and hang them on this wall. We’ll have tape, zip ties, whatever it takes to hang the pictures.” He did say original pictures are not wanted, “we want copies of pictures.” There is no cost to hang pictures on the wall.
Also Friday and Saturday, there will be a quilt show at the Home and Family Arts Building.
Greg Steffe, president of the Kosciusko County Historical Society, will bring Indiana’s smallest county fair, which is a scale model of a working county fair, Loher said. “It is really, really cool. It’s worth a trip just to see that.”
From 3 to 8 p.m. Friday, the vendors and food trucks will be open on the midway. From 4 to 8 p.m., the Historic Village is open with demonstrations and vendors.
Loher said there are about 50 vendors scheduled for Freedom Fest. Not all of the vendors are food, with some of them being arts and crafts.
From 5 to 6 p.m., there will be log sawing by Echoes of the Past. From 5 to 7 p.m., there will be tractor driving for kids by Echoes of the Past. At 5:30 and 7 p.m., there will Thomas Jefferson and Abigail Adams reenactors. At 6 p.m., there will be an ice cream demonstration by Echoes of the Past. At 6:30 p.m., there will be a drum and song circle by the Miami Nation at the Historical Village.
From 7 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, the American Legion Band of Fort Wayne will perform at Central Park, Warsaw.
At 9:30 p.m., there will be a Franciscan Fireworks America 250 fireworks display at the fairgrounds.
On Saturday, from 7 to 10 a.m., the Wheels on Fire Community Breakfast will be at the HFA Building’s north end. At 7 a.m., the LITE Recovery 5K registration will begin at the HFA Building’s south end, with the race starting at 8 a.m.
At 8 a.m. Saturday, the Freedom Fest parade will start lining up at Boggs Park. At 10 a.m., the Freedom Fest parade will go down West Center Street to Bronson Street to the Kosciusko County Fairgrounds main entrance.
From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, the Historic Village will be open. From 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., vendors and food trucks will be open on the midway. At 12:30 p.m. there will be Thomas Jefferson and Abigail Adams reenactors and a frontier loyalist presentation at the log cabin.
At 1:30 p.m., there will be a veterans ceremony on the midway. Loher said there will be guest speakers and performers.
There is a scheduled flyover by the Air Force at 1:40 p.m. Saturday, which Loher said they’re still working on the details for.
From 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday, there will be a kids tractor driving experience by Echoes of the Past. At 3 p.m., there will be a beard and mullet contest, as well as log sawing by Echoes of the Past. At 3:30 p.m., there will be reenactors performing. At 4 p.m., there will be homemade ice cream by Echoes of the Past. At 4:30 p.m. there will be a drum and song circle at the Historical Village. From 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., there will be a car and jeep show on the midway.
Concert
At 6:30 p.m., the grandstand concert will begin. Darryl Worley will perform, supported by Jason Michael Carroll and Keenie.
Loher said Carroll has been to Warsaw several times and the first time Loher worked with Carroll was when Carroll was the headline at the county fair in 2007. Loher said Carroll has been back to Warsaw since and they’re excited to bring him back for Freedom Fest.
Keenie has been part of “A Country Christmas With Susie McEntire” several times. When Keenie, whose husband is a veteran, learned about Warsaw’s Freedom Fest, she wanted to be part of it. Loher said he’s heard Keenie will bring some surprises with her.
The concert is the only event that will require tickets. Track tickets are $10 and grandstand tickets are $20. People can go to www.eventbrite.com to purchase tickets online or they can be purchased at the fairgrounds.
Loher said tickets are going, but there is still room for more people.
After the concert, there will be the Crazy Joes Fireworks America 250 fireworks display.
Sunday Close-Out
On Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the Historic Village, vendors and food trucks will be open. At 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m., there will be reenactors. At 1 p.m., there will be homemade ice cream by Echoes of the Past. At 1:30 p.m., there will be a drum and song circle at the Historical Village.
Also, beyond this weekend, there will be a reading of the Declaration of Independence at 5:30 p.m. July 8 at Warsaw City Hall, which is being done in conjunction with the America 250 program.
“This is very intentional because that is the date that (the Declaration of Independence) was first read publicly in 1776,” Loher said.
Loher said the nation’s freedoms should be celebrated as people are able to have a Freedom Fest, go to church and protest. Those are the freedoms that we have and they need to be continued to be fought for and celebrated, he stated.