MONTGOMERY, W.Va. — The first-ever Freedom Festival to benefit the YMCA of the Kanawha Valley and remember 9/11 and the freedoms that Americans have gets underway on Wednesday.
Gambill Amusements along with the River Cities of Montgomery and Smithers will hold a festival full of food, games, and activities for the family to help the YMCA of the Kanawha Valley through Saturday.
“I think it is going to be a great time,” Montgomery Mayor Greg Ingram told 580-WCHS.”They have a lot of rides being set up here and a lot of work is being done.”
Ingram said the entire front street in Montgomery will be used for the festival.
According to a release, the Freedom Festival will return to the River Cities every year during the week of September 11th and is designed to help the Valley region remember the sacrifices associated with the attacks of nine-eleven (September 11, 2001), the patriotism those events engendered, the continuing fight we wage in the War Against Global Terrorism, and the freedoms we all cherish as Americans.
“They are over there protecting our freedom,” Ingram said of the troops. “It all started on 9-11. That was the spark that ignited the wars we are in now. We are trying to celebrate the fact that America is free.”
The festival on Wednesday and Thursday from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., Friday from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., and Saturday is from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. capped off by fireworks at 10.