Liberty on Parade to return for second year

Libby’s take on the Fourth of July holiday will return this year, but with a different date.

Christened as Liberty on Parade, the inaugural shindig was organized amid the economic shutdown sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic. Local veteran and organizer Kenny Rayome said at the time that it was more important than ever to express patriotism and love of community.

The itinerary included a parade, featuring fire engines, law enforcement vehicles and classic cars, which weaved through Libby on July 4 as well as games, food and drink. A fireworks display at J. Neils Memorial Park topped off the day.

With Troy’s annual Independence Day extravaganza cancelled owing to concerns about the virus, onlookers turned out in droves for the Libby event. The apparent success of the event spurred Rayome to pledge to bring it back in subsequent years in a letter published in several community newspapers.

But that put it potentially in conflict with Troy’s celebration, a yearly tradition dating back more than a century.

Although there is no official demarcation of holidays, Lincoln County’s communities traditionally avoid throwing competing shindigs. As discussion of the future Troy celebration sprung up late last summer, officials in that municipality publicly hoped Libby residents would remain respectful of the city’s history with the Fourth of July.

The annual event brings thousands to Troy and represents a significant boost to the community’s economy. Canceling the 2020 rendition came after arduous debate.

At the time, members of the Troy Chamber of Commerce, which organizes the event, worried that pandemic restrictions would trump any amount of planning. Storing pyrotechnics, in the eventuality the event were cancelled, posed another potential problem, officials said last year.

A Facebook page for the Liberty on Parade event went up earlier this year. According to the page, the Libby Veterans of Foreign Wars post is hosting the gathering, which is now scheduled for June 26.

Rayome went before the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners on April 7 to announce the new date.

“Liberty on Parade, the event we did last year on the Fourth, we’ve moved it to the old Libby Logger Day spot,” Rayome said. “It’s a one day event, but in the future maybe we will stretch it out into a couple of days.”

Along with the festivities organized the year prior, Rayome said supporters had arranged for the ship’s bell of the newly-christened USS Montana to come to Libby.

Commissioners welcomed the change of date. Without going into details, County Commissioner Mark Peck (D-1) alluded to the angst surrounding potentially conflicting Independence Day events.

“We won’t get into the range war that happened,” he said.

“We appreciate you doing that,” County Commissioner Jerry Bennett (D-2) told Rayome.

Organizers in Troy announced the return of that community’s Fourth of July bash on social media earlier this year.