‘All about freedom’: People celebrate the Fourth of July in Riverfront Park

Freedom, fireworks and food.

The Fourth of July is known for many things, but the staples of Independence Day are often boiled down to those three simple words. Just ask the roughly 35,000 people who showed up for Fourth of July festivities in Riverfront Park what they love most about the holiday. Chances are they’ll say one of those three things.

As the MasterClass Big Band played hits from the last 50 years, the Fricks family took to dealing out playing cards on a grassy hill for a friendly game of “crummy rummy,” which is a variation of contract rummy.

Tom Fricks, 59, first took his daughter, Alex Fricks, and son, Collin Fricks, to Riverfront Park for the Fourth of July in 2011. Back then, they only brought a blanket from Value Village with them to the park. But on Saturday, they had a cooler with drinks and plenty of board games to make an impressive perimeter around their blanket.

Because of college, work and other life factors that tend to separate families as kids age, the three of them haven’t all been together for the Fourth of July since 2016. So this year’s celebration was also a Fricks family reunion .

“I think we’re all pretty much on the same page politically,” Collin Fricks, 30, said. “We’re not like super patriotic, we don’t love a lot of stuff that’s going on, but yeah, it’s fun that there’s an event for people to come up to and do for free and spend time with their family and be with each other. There’s nothing that could ever be wrong with that.”

T.T. Hadgu has tried to make it to Riverfront Park for the Fourth of July every summer since she immigrated from Eritrea nearly 14 years ago. Her daughter, Hara Hadgu, joined her in the United States about four years ago. Now the pair always go together.

“We struggled for freedom for 17 years (in Eritra),” T.T. Hadgu said. “That’s why we enjoy the freedom (here). We know what it’s like to be colonized.”

Eritrea is a country on the Horn of Africa that shares a border with Ethiopia. In 1993, Eritrea finally won its freedom from Ethiopia after decades of conflict. But before Ethiopia, the country of six or seven million was controlled by Italy. Even after a lengthy war for independence, the people of Eritrea and Ethiopia still experienced frequent skirmishes for years.

T.T. said she came to the United States to find more opportunity. She’s been pleasantly surprised by what she’s found, but noted women don’t have as much freedom as she’d like to see.

While T.T. and Hara lounged in the grass, T.T. said her youngest son was somewhere in the jumble of carnival rides. He usually starts talking about how excited he is for the Fourth of July around March.

Between the Tilt-a-Whirl, Berry-Go-Round, a couple of smaller Ferris wheels, all the ring toss games and even a laser tag course in the park, the young man had more than enough to keep himself busy. The girls, meanwhile, got a chance to relax as they waited for fireworks.

“Regardless of political views, we just want to celebrate because it’s all about freedom,” Hara Hagdu said.

Silvestre Pineda and Sierra Pineda both live in Pullman but decided to make the trip to Riverfront Park to see what the hype was all about. As of 8 p.m. on Saturday, the married couple said it’s exceeded their expectations.

They got some food, watched a movie at AMC and then planted their lawn chair under the Clocktower. They – like almost every single person who was asked the question – were most excited for the fireworks.

Sierra’s advice for anyone looking to come to Riverfront Park on future Fourths of July is to do as they did and “bring a chair.”