Kick Butt Fun To Be Had At East Dubuque Independence Day Celebration

East Dubuque is having an Independence Day Celebration on Sunday, June 28th from 1pm ’til dusk. Runde’s is very excited that we are sponsoring and donating to this event but we are even more excited to go to it. We were so anxious for the event that we decided to kidnap Casey Klein, board member of the East Dubuque Business and Tourism Group, in order to gain more information about the event. So raise your hand if you don’t like to have fun. Those of you who raised your hand can stop reading this post now, thank you for your time. For the remaining fun-loving individuals still here, listen up.

So Casey, can you describe for me what the Old Fashioned Independence Day Celebration event is?
It’s an opportunity for the city to gather and celebrate its independence. The bottom line is that we are going to do that by having a parade, car show, games, and a fireworks display (held at dusk). There will also be fantastic live music being played throughout the day.

We’re not going to have a lot of sticky food on the grounds; we want people to come hungry because this year we are offering a meal as part of the events. East Dubuque Lions Club member Ben Andersen is a phenomenal chef. He’s partnering with John Diggman from Carlos O’Kelly’s to give people that come a fantastic meal from 4pm -7pm. Tickets are going to be between $6-$7 for the meal and there will be children’s alternatives to the main coarse – pork loin.

How long has the event been going on?
This is our third year of doing the event and every year it has been better and better. Last year the weather was a bit down, but it didn’t stop or damper the excitement. We get our fireworks from J & M Displays out of Yarmouth, IA. They do a fantastic job and we are happy to work with them.

Sounds like quite a bit of fun getting everyone together to make this event possible.
That’s what the Old Fashioned Independence Day Celebration is about – getting the community together and having a great time. We are very grateful to the Carter Newt family for donating some property for the event — everyone in the community has been very helpful.

This is our branding year for the event. We are branding it in name – it will always be called “Old Fashioned Independence Day Celebration,” always on the Sunday before the Fourth of July, always in East Dubuque, and it will always be from 1pm ’til dusk.

Tell me more about the car show.
The parade starts at 1 o’clock on the main street area – Sinsinawa Ave. the main parade route. From that location everyone is invited down to the Midtown Marina where the car show will be held on the parking lot supplied by Sandy McDowell. Cars start arriving from 1 o’clock in the morning up until the time of the judging. It has been averaging 60-70 cars and we hope to see more every year. The show typically runs from 1 o’clock ’til 4 o’clock.

Is there any fee to enter?
Yes, there is just a $10 fee per head fir the car show. There will be a judging opportunity for things such as best in show and farthest driven car, etc to the people who take part in the event.

How is Runde Auto Group helping out the event?
They are our main sponsor for the car show. Runde Auto Group is an anchor to the city of East Dubuque. They have always stepped up to the plate for any volunteer opportunities in the community. People love the vehicles that Runde’s donates, like the Split Decision Truck, it’s a gorgeous big, cool truck and people go “wow”… it’s just a great visual. Every year Runde’s comes in with a financial donation which is gracious, but more importantly they say “hey, we are in East Dubuque, we love this city, and we will continue to support this community.”

Thank you! And we do love this community and city; we want to see it shine.
It’s unbelievable how much it has grown, in the next year this will be a different town – it will be a city and events like this give it more recognition. We do need more help, though. Currently we only have five volunteers.  Last year we had 60 and we always need more. We start working on the next event, literally, the day after the last event ends and the more people that help, the better.

How many people usually come to this event?
Well, 2,000 people live in East Dubuque.  I’m going to throw out a guess that between 5 and 6 thousand people will show up. When the weather was down last year we still had more than 2,000 people come. People from all over the Tri-States came down for a great time.

Must be a pain to clean up, huh?
The local boy scouts and girl scouts are coming in at 8am on Monday and Mike Meyer, from The Glass Door, is going to provide lunch for everybody who volunteers for the Independence Day Celebration. It will definitely be worth the labor after such a great event.

Sounds like a really great time, huh?!  We are glad that we could help out with such a great event!  We’re looking forward to being at the event and socializing with the community. See you there guys!