IF YOU GO* What: Crossroads Freedom Festival.* When: 3-p.m. dark Sunday.* Where: Rainsville City Park, behind City Hall on McCurdy Avenue (Alabama Highway 75).* Admission: Free (except for concessions).* Phone: 256-638-3141.
The countdown to Independence Day begins Sunday in Rainsville, Ala., as the Crossroads Freedom Festival offers the first fireworks display of the season. Rainsville is known as “The Crossroads of Sand Mountain.”
The community celebration began about a decade ago, simply as a send-off for kids attending Vacation Bible School at First Baptist of Rainsville, according to church administrator B.L. Stiefel. Three years in, church leaders were approached by city officials to expand the celebration to Rainsville City Park.
Since then, the party has grown to attract twice the town’s population of 5,000, Stiefel said.
“It gets wild about an hour before the fireworks,” he said. “It’s shoulder to shoulder, elbow to elbow, but everybody loves it.”