Music and Fireworks: America 250 in New Concord

NEW CONCORD, Ohio – The Fourth of July came and went, but America 250 celebrations can still be found across in the country in places like New Concord.

The village at the Eastern edge of Muskingum County is hosting a day-long celebration with a free swim day at the pool, free tours at the local museums in town, a community picnic, live music, and or course, fireworks. Mary Beth Caudill is the communications and community relations coordinator for the village and she says the event was made possible by a village-wide collaboration.

“I have loved every bit of this. It’s so neat to see all these different organizations come together,” Caudill said. “We’ve got churches, a bunch of individuals, we got CNC (Celebrate New Concord), we’ve got the board of trade, we’ve got NCAARD (New Concord Area Arts and Recreation District). It’s just been wonderful to see everyone work together and we’ve got a lot of very generous people in this community as well that have helped fund the fireworks.”

The Muskingum Valley Symphonic Winds will take the stage in the village park to perform patriotic songs that will play in concert with the fireworks show. Music Director David Turrill shares the music line-up for the fireworks finale.

“The finale of the concert will include the ‘1812 Overture’ by Tchaikovsky, which has become an iconic patriotic tradition, and we’re coordinating that with our fireworks display. So we’re very excited about that, and that will go into ‘Stars and Stripes.’ We’ll be playing while the fireworks are going on,” Turrill said.

The fireworks show was made possible through a community fundraiser that collected more than $15,000. You can see the latest edition of “Where’s Brenda” for more information about the event.