Fremont, Danville Find Virtual Solutions For Stay-At-Home July 4th Festivities
FREMONT (KPIX 5) -- With fireworks canceled, parades canceled and big barbecues discouraged outside of your social bubble, Bay Area residents are being advised by health officials not to leave their house this Fourth of July holiday.
"The best thing to do is to stay home, celebrate with members of your household and to be able to celebrate virtually with others," San Francisco Director of Public Health San Francisco's Doctor Grant Colfax said Thursday.
One thing that has not been canceled in the tech-savvy Bay Area is creativity. The Fremont Fourth of July committee borrowed an idea from the City of Portland's canceled Rose Parade and turned the stars and stripes extravaganza into a porch parade.
"Now, we're not going to have the houses come along with us. We're going to have people going out and judging the houses to see what they look like," said Fremont Porch Parade host Brandon Sass.
In addition to homes being decked out with patriotic bunting and tinsel, a livestream party will happen on Zoom and Facebook Live, with a vintage plane flyover above Fremont as well.
"We've got some live performances from bands and they are going to be performing in their driveway or something like that," said Sass.
Organizer Kathy Kimberlin hopes it will be a welcome break from the pandemic grind.
"Most days we're doing the best we can to work remotely, to buy groceries, to do the things that are so daunting right now and I think for us to have a little break in the action to smile about," Kimberlin told KPIX 5.
There will also be a map available to get a look at decked-out Fremont homes at a safe distance. More information is available at the Fremont Fourth website.
Ordinarily, there would already be people lining up to watch the Fourth of July Parade in Danville. Organizers for that East Bay suburb's event have similarly decided to hold a virtual parade on the holiday that will be hosted on the parade's official website.
