Barbara Lawlor, Nederland. On Saturday morning, the Fourth of July, the streets of Nederland bustled with activity. A tremendous surge of community effort had gone into the production of a spectacular celebration of Independence Day, including the return of the fireworks display over Barker Reservoir.

Although much of the past month has been dismal with rain, a weather window opened to sunshine and heat for most of the day.

At noon, the highway through town was closed and the parade up First Street began. At least a thousand people gathered to see the fire department emergency vehicles loaded with flag-waving children muscle their way up their street. They were big and strong and red and yellow and sometimes noisy.

Joseph Trammel, 4, of Arvada was dressed in his firefighting bunker gear and said the fire engines were his favorite part because he was a firefighter and the Fourth of July parade was all about firefighters.

Chris Bower announced the parade entries for the second year in a row, inheriting the position from Dave Felkley. Armed with tidbits of history and his own style of humor, he kept the crowd entertained while the trucks, cars, bikes, horses, pedestrians, and alpacas marched in a stream of red, white, and blue.

The Barker Big Brass Band tooted their horns and jazzed up the crowd, the Mountain People’s Co-op vegetables and fruits danced, vintage cars gleamed, their passengers beamed. The Nederland Community Library, the Boy and Girl Scouts, the Carousel of Happiness, the Rising Sun Ranch, the Nederland Town Public Works Department and a variety of businesses all joined in on the marching madness of a small town having a good time.

After the parade, people meandered over to the Guercio Ball Field, where a huge air-blown obstacle course and slide lured long lines of children ready to bounce and leap and fly over the camouflage-patterned landscape.

Vendors filled the field with food and drink and crafts and cool clothes. Music filled the air with rhythm and harmony. The fair was fenced in because beer was allowed this year but not allowed outside of the fair area.

The event itself, however, was free to all.

Across the street, next to the bank, the annual firefighters’ barrel fight took place, this time an in-house competition for the Ned firefighters, who thought being pushed around by a pressure-forced stream of water was a good time.

Four teams fought three rounds: Eric Abramson and Laurelynn Sayah, Iain Irwin-Powell and Rob Savoye, Erik Gabbey and Kirsten Reynolds, and Chelsea Myslic and Alec Olivas. Each team hefted the hoses and tried to gun each other down.

Abramson and Sayah prevailed.

The grass on the field was long and slippery when wet, and when the barrel was blown overhead, it was difficult for the teams to keep their balance. But it was a hot day and there were burgers on the grill and cold drinks in the cooler and time to relive old fire department memories.

Throughout the day, the human foosball game attracted many visitors willing to hang onto the pipes and vie for the ball soccer-style.

Around 4 p.m., during the last foosball event, the skies opened up with a sudden thunderstorm that dropped hail and slashing rain and everyone took cover or went home.

It looked like it might be the end of the festivities, but the weather relented; and although the ground was soggy, the sky cleared and thousands of people returned to the Barker shores for the first fireworks show in three years. By dusk, every parkable space was taken as the evening band revved up and the dancing began. It was like NedFest, except it was free, and families and groups of friends waved glow lights and had picnics and sat on and under blankets until the Nederland Fire Protection District fire trucks sounded their sirens to announce the first, huge rockets that boomed over the water.

Flowers and spiders and waterfalls and snowstorms sparkled and exploded, reflected in the reservoir. Cheers greeted the displays that went on and on beyond their expectations. When the finale finished, the traffic jam began, but it wasn’t anything that was not expected.

NPD officers, Boulder County Sheriff’s Deputies, and even the Colorado State Patrol were on hand to make sure everyone got out of town and headed home safely.

It was a truly spectacular Old Fashioned Fourth of July and those who raised the funds and organized the events, Deb D’Andrea, Mandy Kneer and Barbara Hardt of the Peak to Peak Healthy Communities Project and the NFPD and the Town of Nederland, did a fantastic job of bringing the community together for one of Ned’s all-time favorite celebrations.