PHOTO: Courtesy of WLUK
APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — When the Appleton Area Jaycees announced 2023 would be its last year hosting Appleton’s annual Fireworks Celebration — the community felt the change.
“We’ve been here since like 6 o clock and there’s nothing, super disappointing,” said Ivana Green, who was at the event in 2024.
Christina Tanck, who was also at Memorial Park in 2024, said, “I would love the vendors and the music to come back again.”
On Monday night, the Parks and Recreation Committee voted to put things back on track.
It’s moving forward with the event under the management of Wisconsin Entertainment Group.
Appleton Parks and Recreation Director Dean Gazza talked more about their plans.
“At this time, I know the group looked at bringing in bands for the day, bringing in lots of children’s entertainment for the day, naturally ending with the fireworks,” he said.
Last year, the city of Appleton hosted a scaled-back event.
The city lacked the budget, staff or time to put on a celebration seen in prior years.
As a result, there was a noticeable lack of food trucks, children’s activities and entertainment in the hours leading up to the fireworks.
Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland spoke to the community response at the meeting. “People who are disappointed, people who are very happy to have the fireworks back but felt that with everyone getting into that park to sit and wait, it would be a much better environment to have the music, the food, etcetera,” she said. “So I’m glad to see that this is back.”
Gazza said this year, they’re ahead of the curve.
“It may seem a little bit early, but in order to get everybody lined up, all the bands are already starting to commit for the entire summer,” he explained. “And they want to get everybody committed, get all the activities, get all the rentals in place.”
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