One of the things I have learned to like about living in the Salem Oregon area is all of the smaller town festivals. Obviously, yesterday was the 4th of July, and rather than deal with the lack of parking in downtown Salem, we decided to head out to Western Days in Monmouth and Independence Oregon. We hadn’t been over there yet, so this was my first experience there.
Western Days is held at the Riverview Park in Independence and Main Street Park in Monmouth. They have live music, plenty of food booths, as well as art/crafts/wares booths. We were in Independence.
I have to say for a small town I was impressed with the size of this event. There were a few rides there, which were insanely expensive, but I took a quick shot from the top of the big slide of the park. This was taken around 7PM or so and I can tell you that it was packed by 8:30.
It normally runs for two days surrounding the July 4th holiday and is one of the two major festivals done in this area, the other being the Hops festival.
The fireworks were great…
So if you are new to Salem or are just relocating here and want to celebrate the 4th in a smaller venue then heading to one of our smaller town celebrations, like Western Days, might be right for you.
1 Comment