Fourth of July events kick off Saturday with Fort Benning’s Independence Day Celebration; Thunder on the Hooch will not be held this year | ToDo | Columbus Ledger Enquirer

The Fourth of July is not until Thursday, but the party — fireworks and all — starts Saturday at Fort Benning.

The annual Fort Benning Independence Day celebration on post will feature music and games beginning at 3 p.m. The fireworks display starts when it gets dark.

While the Fort Benning event has survived another year, the main downtown celebration, Thunder on the Hooch, will not be held this year, according to sponsor WTVM.

“WTVM was proud to be able to provide Thunder on the Hooch for the past 14 years to our community,” said Adelaide Kirk, the station’s general and national sales manager. “However, after careful consideration, we made the difficult decision not to continue for

a number of reasons — the most paramount being our concern for the safety of our employees and the thousands that attended the event each year. As a station we made the decision to focus our resources in a different direction and in 2013 have launched the ‘Give 9’ service campaign which awards cash prizes to deserving nonprofit organizations throughout the community as well as quarterly community service projects with the winning nonprofit organizations.”

via Fourth of July events kick off Saturday with Fort Benning’s Independence Day Celebration; Thunder on the Hooch will not be held this year | ToDo | Columbus Ledger Enquirer.