Get ready for Red, Wet, and Blue!
The city of Swainsboro will be seeing a new July 4th celebration this year, hosted by the Swainsboro Jaycees. James Ward says the Red, Wet, and Blue Parade kicks off on Sunday, July 3rd.
This year, all festivities will be moved to downtown Swainsboro. Line up will begin at Walmart at 6 p.m., with the parade starting at 6:30 p.m. The procession will move down South Green Street to West Main Street.
And there’s a reason why the parade is called Red, WET, and Blue—it’s a huge water fight!
“Certain areas of the parade will be marked as Dry Zone or Wet Zone,”said Ward. He said that in wet zones participants can bring water guns, but not water balloons. The only thing they ask is for participants not to soak people who are in dry zones. Ward says the Dry Zones currently are from Walmart to Harvey’s Supermarket. Wet Zones will be from Harvey’s Supermarket to West Main Street. Six to eight 250-gallon containers of water will be available for refueling.
After the parade, live music is scheduled at The Boneyard from 7:30 to 9 p.m. “Right now, we don’t have anyone locked in, but we are looking at someone out of Athens who has a large TikTok following,” said Ward. He added that there would be deejays to provide programmed music for the festivities if live music "does not work out.” There will also be inflatables for children, including wet slides and bounce houses. Food vendors will also be set up at The Boneyard.
The main attraction every year has been the Jaycees fireworks show after 9 p.m. There’s a new venue this year as well. Ward says the fireworks show will be the same display that the community is used to, however, “it’ll just be from downtown this year.” He says the fireworks show will be part of the downtown Swainsboro festivities and not at the Recreation Department.
Parking spaces will be at The Boneyard. As for viewing the fireworks show, Ward says, “There’ll be parking spaces available from Swainsboro Supply all the way to the First Baptist Church. You’ll be able to see a great show from anywhere.”
As for how this new celebration came about, Ward said that some members of the Jaycees are also Shriners. They were able to attend the Beach Bum Parade on Tybee Island and became inspired to do something similar in Swainsboro. “It was a city-wide water fight, and we had the best time down there. On the way home we talked about how we could do something this fun in Swainsboro. We are hoping this is a big hit with everyone.”
To register for the Jaycees Red, Wet, and Blue Parade, go to swainsborojaycees.com and click on “1st Annual Freedom Fest.” There will be a Parade Registration link set up to sign up for parades.
Disclaimer from the Jaycees webpage: To keep safety a priority for everyone we ask that: No water balloons or buckets be thrown. No pressure washers with fine tips. No ice water. No dye. No bleach. No chemicals other than H2O. Only wet those within the designated Wet Zones. Do NOT wet Public Safety officials.