While Gloucester celebrated Independence Day as it does traditionally on July 3 with the Horribles parade and fireworks, the rest of Cape Ann celebrated on the Fourth of July.
Essex’s celebration was low key with a boat parade on Chebacco Lake, while a parade marched through Manchester-by-the-Sea.
But Rockport made a day of it starting with costumed Rotary Club members reading the Declaration of Independence in Dock Square in the morning to the nighttime bonfire, burning in effigy of a pesky pileated woodpecker that damaging multiple vehicles in a neighborhood.
In between was the annual Rockport Firemen’s Association Fourth of July Parade with the theme of “Rockport the Beautiful,” and a “Red, White and Blue”-themed concert by the Rockport Legion Band at the Back Beach bandstand.
The parade grand marshal rode in Rockport Ladder One which was sporting Chris Dailey’s No. 18 jersey on the front windshield. Dailey, a new Gloucester High School graduate whose family has Rockport roots and who grew up in Rockport, was fatally injured in a car crash last Monday.
The parade also featured a plethora of vintage tractors, some pulling the many floats.
The Rockport Firemen’s Association uses the parade as a fundraiser to pay for new equipment, fund scholarships, and to host the Fourth of July parade year after year.