Melaleuca says Freedom Celebration will be bigger than ever this year
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IDAHO FALLS — The Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce announced Friday the 2017 Independence Day Liberty Festival has been cancelled.
Some have understood that to mean the fireworks have been cancelled but that is not the case.
The festival is held during the day on the 4th of July along the Snake River in Idaho Falls and is different than the Melaleuca Freedom Celebration.
The term Melaleuca Freedom Celebration refers to the fireworks show. The term Liberty Festival refers to the event put on by various vendors selling items prior to the show.
The vendor event has been cancelled, according to the Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce, but not the fireworks themselves.
Melaleuca CEO Frank VanderSloot issued the following statement this evening:
The announcement from the Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce surprised us a little. We’ve been in conversations with the Chamber about this but they had not informed us of the timing of their release.
Let me assure you that the 2017 Melaleuca Freedom Celebration will be held in Idaho Falls. And it will be bigger and better than ever. The decision of the location has been narrowed down to two sites. Both sites are very promising and both will have adequate room for vendors. We are finalizing some of the arrangements and are about one week away from a final announcement.
Changing the location involves a lot of coordination involving property owners surrounding the launch site. We are receiving phenomenal cooperation and support from them and the entire community as well as from the city of Idaho Falls and Bonneville County.
Rest assured the 2017 Melaleuca Freedom Celebration will be the best and most exciting show ever! We anticipate making the final announcement by next Friday.
We feel that the vendor event is very important part of the 4th of July celebration. Although the Idaho Falls Chamber has now announced it will not manage the Liberty Festival, we are confident another organization will step forward to work with the vendors. And we will make sure there will be a very good location for them to set up their booths. One of the delays has been in making sure that that will happen.