SAFETY HARBOR, Fla. — Safety Harbor's annual Fourth of July parade drew crowds from across Pinellas County Saturday morning, even as rain moved in and out throughout the event, as the nation marked its 250th birthday.
Families lined up and down the street, with kids collecting candy from parade floats and fire trucks rolling through to cheers from the crowd.
For many attendees, the parade is a longstanding tradition. Cristina Radford grew up coming to the event and now brings her husband Connor and their two boys every year.
"I grew up in Safety Harbor and so we started incorporating it into our children's Fourth of July traditions every year," Radford said.
Kris and Brooke Roman, who live just outside of Safety Harbor, treat the Fourth of July as their biggest holiday of the year.
"We're a very patriotic family. This is our big holiday. We've celebrated it like it's like Christmas for us," Roman said.
The Romans were also clear on why showing up matters.
"We have -- to go all out for the, especially the 250th, you know what I mean?" Kris Roman said.
Among the crowd were also newcomers experiencing the celebration for the first time. Tampa Bay 28 reporter Blake Phillips ran into the Ketteridge family on Main Street, who recently moved to Safety Harbor from Aberdeen, Scotland, and were marking their first Fourth of July in the United States as a family.
"This year is our first year living in the US for the 4th of July, so we thought we would take the chance to see the kind of local parades and local celebrations," Robert Ketteridge said.
Ketteridge said the family's move was driven by the opportunities America offers for their daughters.
"We thought while the girls were still relatively young, we would move over here and kind of make the most of the kind of opportunities and the lifestyle and the weather and things," Ketteridge said.
As the parade wrapped up and celebrations continued into the afternoon, the Romans summed up the spirit of the day.
"We're American. You have to go out and celebrate," Roman said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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