The Champaign County Freedom Celebration has been East Central Illinois’ premier patriotic party since 1949 -honoring a longstanding custom to celebrate Independence Day in Champaign County.
Diane Ducey is a local radio personality at Stevie Jay Broadcasting. She has been a volunteer at the Champaign County Freedom Celebration since 2022 and has attended the celebration ever since she was a child.
“It’s been a premier Patriotic Party since I was a little girl and living in Tolono, about 10 miles south of Champaign. We’d load up people and come on into the main hub at Memorial Stadium area and watch the fireworks,” she said. “And oftentimes my mother would pack a picnic, and it’s just been a part of everybody’s custom here in Champaign County.”
New Timing
This year’s event will include some changes to its parade route and time.
Captain Joe McCullough with the University of Illinois Police, said that due to the lack of volunteers, the celebration had to delay its parade time to 4:30 p.m. — several hours later than its traditional time.
The new parade time will consolidate the road closures and make things easier for staff and volunteers.
“We wanted to change the location and time where we could fit it with a limited amount of staffing,” McCullough said. “We did not want to sacrifice any safety along a long parade route.”
The traditional parade’s footprint is over a mile and a half. Now it is a quarter mile shorter, so the actual length of the parade isn’t much shorter than what it was in the past.
The parade will follow the University of Illinois’ homecoming route, which circles the stadium area — starting near Fourth and Kirby, heading towards Gregory, then down to First, and finally back up to Kirby.
McCullough said that one of the positive aspects of the delayed time is that the events will be back-to-back.
“Being able to have the parade and then the concert evening program, food trucks, going into fireworks, community members can come out and enjoy all of that at the same time,” he said. “Rather than a parade and 5k in the morning, than a significant break before the evening started.”
Security plans and special guests
The University of Illinois Police Department is the lead agency for public safety. It partners with the Urbana Police Department, Champaign Police Department, the Champaign County Sheriff’s Department, and Parkland College Police.
During the celebration, U of I police will aid in traffic direction and security.
“It’s a large public safety footprint to make sure that we have a safe environment for the parade,” McCullough said.
This year’s celebration theme is “America celebrates Pride of the Heartland.” Following the theme, the Grand Marshal will be Alvin Decker and his family.
The Deckers have been farming in Central Illinois for generations. Ducey said that being chosen as a grand marshal signifies a contribution to the spirit of freedom and America.
“We haven’t tapped a farmer in our agricultural community in quite some time, so that came up in the discussions.”
The celebration will also offer a tailgating-like atmosphere with various activities for everyone to enjoy, according to Ducey.
“I didn’t really hit in lot 31, and a lot of us are used to coming to the University of Illinois for football games, and that’s the biggest lot there for the tailgating,” Ducey said. “And we still have kind of a little bit of a tailgating look, in the sense that there are all these food trucks and inflatables.”
Nathan Applegate, a rising country star from Missouri, will perform live music at the celebration. The evening will conclude with a flag ceremony, the national anthem, and fireworks starting at 9:15 p.m.
Volunteer recruitment
Ducey says the celebration relies entirely on volunteers, but finding volunteers on a federal holiday has become increasingly difficult over the years.
“I know it’s harder on the Fourth of July, and this year it’s on a Friday,” Ducey said. “So there’s a lot of people probably traveling and trying to navigate hosting relatives.”
The celebration is still in need of volunteers. Anyone interested in volunteering can find more information here.