East Texans celebrate Fourth of July 2024

TYLER, Texas ( KETK ) – America's Independence Day is here and East Texans have been celebrating our nation's freedom from monarchy and tyranny all day long.

LIST: East Texas Fourth of July events 2024

KETK visited the following Fourth of July celebrations so we could share their patriotism with other East Texans:

Over in Canton, they celebrated America's birthday with a time capsule dedication, a watermelon eating contest and their annual Fourth of July Parade. On top of all the fun, the festivities are also helping to fund the Canton Main Street Program.

"It's always the big patriotic thing. People come out and decorate their cars, liberty horses and bicycles, and usually the biggest floats are out local tow service. They toot and honk and flash their lights all the way through town. It's a tradition and It's fun," said Lou Ann Everett, the mayor of Canton.

East Texas Yamboree Fireworks Show brings celebrations to community

Later on after it's dark, they'll have fireworks over on the west side of the First Mondays Trade Day grounds. Mayor Everett promised that the fireworks show will be bigger and better than ever before.

In Longview, they're having their Fireworks and Freedom Celebration at the Maude Cobb Convention Center. City officials claim they're having the biggest fireworks show in all of East Texas.

From The Archives: What should go on a hot dog?

"We have great food trucks here, and then we have a vendor market inside Maude Cobb and a hot dog eating contest. And the princesses and the heroes are doing a meet and greet," said Gai Bennett, the general manager of the Longview Convention Complex.

Their celebration activities started at 6 p.m. and the fireworks show starts at 9:30 p.m.

The City of Lufkin had their July 4th celebrations at the Ellen Trout Park on Thursday. Their family-friendly fun started at 5 p.m. and featured live music, food, fireworks and more.

Over in Nacogdoches, they held their Jaycees FreedomFest at Festival Park on Thursday. The festival started at 5 p.m. and they had a patriotic t-shirt give away, live music and fireworks.

"It's great to see, in the midst of what we're in, with everything going on around the world, it's great to see everybody come together like this," said Nacogdoches Jaycees president, Winston Reynolds.

The fireworks show started at 9 p.m. and lasted around 25 minutes.