Delayed Fourth celebration attracts thousands

Maricopans proved monsoon weather bringing winds and floods could not keep them from celebrating the Fourth of July, even if it meant Independence Day festivities had to be postponed for three days.

It didn’t take long Saturday after the 5:30 p.m. opening for droves of Maricopans — and not a few out-of-towners — to fill Pacana Park, set up picnic chairs and have a wet and wild time before settling in for a spectacular half-hour fireworks show.

“I think this is awesome,” said Will Dunn, of Action Alliance Network, the event’s main organizer, while setting up for the city’s attempt at breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest squirt-gun fight.

“If we would’ve done this on Wednesday we wouldn’t have had half this amount of people come out,” Dunn said.

Kevin and Adrienne Cox attending the event after a two-year hiatus during which they had moved from the city, were impressed with how much the event had grown.

“It’s a lot bigger, before we all had to sit out on the baseball field,” Adrienne Cox said.

Kevin chimed in that when the couple first attended several years ago, the grassy area on which they were sitting and their children playing was a parking lot.

The couple, who attended with their 9-year-old daughter Abbi and 11-year-old niece Kailey, said there was even more to enjoy this year.

“I like that they have the water events for the kids because it’s hot out,” Adrienne Cox said, referring to the giant, inflatable water slides, dunking booth, and other water activities in the designated Wet Zone. “I like the small-town atmosphere.”

Eric Freund and his wife, Alisha, attended the event for the first time and echoed the sentiment.

“We love it so far,” Eric Freund said, adding that he enjoyed “the laid-back atmosphere.”

For Stuart Schillinger, who came up from Tucson with his three children “to visit grandpa,” the water-gun record breaking attempt was a big draw.

Eight-year-old Aaron, 10-year-old Joseph and Grace, 6, were all wielding their own large, impressive water guns before the attempt to break the squirt-gun war world record.

***ADVERTISEMENT***Their strategy was simple: “We’re just going to squirt and have fun,” Schillinger said.

The water-gun battle was also part of what drew Phoenix resident Tony Munoz.

Munoz said his sister-in-law lived in Maricopa and they had attended the Salsa Festival with her.

“We had fun at that and it seems like a really tight-knit community,” Munoz said. “So we thought this would be fun.”

Munoz was adopting a more defensive tactic for the squirt-gun battle: “I’ll probably just have to dive in front of my wife and block her,” he said.

During the 5:30-10 p.m. celebration, people spread out their blankets and folding chairs in preparation for the fireworks show, listened to live entertainment, strolled along a walkway of booths representing community businesses, organizations and political candidates, all while munching on anything from a tri-tip steak sandwiches or the more traditional summer treats of cotton candy and hot dogs.

Not one drop of rain, or flooded field.