On a humid, scorching-hot Fourth of July, the people of Marshalltown and surrounding communities made their way over to the Central Iowa Fairgrounds for an evening of food trucks, fun, music and fireworks to celebrate the national holiday.

Beginning at 4:30 with a performance from Bon Jecci and all the way to the end of Exit-185’s set and the annual fireworks spectacular, it was a buzzing event with a large number of people filing in.

The organization of the event was handled by Luisa Ortega, the chair of the July 4th Planning Committee.

Ortega said it was important to go all-out for the community.

“I think it’s really important, especially for our community and the size that we have,” Ortega said. “We should be able to keep everybody in town and give them a choice of things.

“My goal is to increase the fireworks show every year, which we have been doing, and to just keep adding activities.”

While she pulled the strings and brought the event together, City Council members Mike Ladehoff and Gary Thompson were fundraising and helping Ortega raise money for the annual event — particularly for the big fireworks display, which is not a cheap undertaking.

Ladehoff said it’s been easy to get businesses and residents to buy into the event’s importance.

“We got our fundraising done early. The Marshalltown community really supports this,” Ladehoff said. “Every business that we went to said, ‘Absolutely, let’s do this.’ Luisa makes sure that everything runs so smoothly and we have the right things here, it really turns out to be a great event.”

Between Bon Jecci and Exit 185 was the Marshalltown Municipal band under the direction of Brett Umthun.

Playing a mix of marches and other patriotic songs, it was a slight adjustment from their usual catalog but with the importance of the day, Umthun said the patriotic songs make a lot of appearances.

“It means a lot with the selections that we pick,” Umthun said. “Our tradition has been a lot of marches, and patriotic songs are really important in our repertoire, so it’s really important for us.”

While the bands played, five food trucks dotted the fairgrounds to give attendees plenty of options. Big Acai was present, as was Marshalltown staple Maria’s Tacos. HyVee, Tacos La Cruz and the Kiwanis funnel cake stand were also there. Bouncy castles and a children’s playground made sure there was fun for all ages.

Cars continued to file into the grass parking lot as the night went on, with families getting their viewing sites for the fireworks ready in preparation.

At around 9:30 p.m., just after a performance of Don McLean’s “American Pie” to end Exit-185’s set, the show began. Fireworks illuminated the night sky, signaling the end of another special Fourth at the Fairgrounds for Marshalltown residents.

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Contact Noah Rohlfing at 641-753-6611 or nrohlfing@timesrepublican.com.