Locals and visitors celebrate Fourth of July with patriotic floats, community festivities, and fireworks
By Maylia Baird and Camille DeVaul
NORTH COUNTY — Parked cars crowded every road and side street near Templeton Park this Fourth of July. Patriotic floats, decked-out trailers, old classic cars, trucks, a mariachi band, dancing horses, and even a mobile axe-throwing trailer filled the streets and paraded the park last Thursday morning.
The park itself was filled with red, white, and blue pop-up tents and wagons. Everyone dressed up in theme, with face paint, cowboy hats, and boots. Thanks to this holiday and much-needed break, families were able to enjoy themselves and each other’s company. Many relaxed in lounge chairs as they watched the parade while their children were able toplay and run around freely. This year’s theme for the parade was “Independence Day, the Templeton way,” and they definitely achieved that expectation.
Rachel Farmer from San Luis Obispo explained how she and her family have been attending this event in Templeton for the past six years and that they love the small-town atmosphere that this Fourth of July parade provides. “I live in San Luis and there really isn’t anything like this in San Luis Obispo city,” Farmer said.
Many participants expressed how much they love this tradition, how fortunate they feel to live in a small town and feel like they are part of a strong community.
Jenny Johnson from San Miguel explained how it was her first time attending this parade: “I’ve had goosebumps and chills watching the different floats go by, and I think it represents a strong small community here in our county.”
Those who live here are proud of their town and it definitely shows. Tom Bolton from Atascadero said, “I think that this is a great town, great parade, has a small town feel, and very patriotic. I think these people love their town. They are proud of it.”
Templeton has been hosting this parade for over 40 years. It was originally started by the Kiwanis Club of Templeton and then turned over to the Templeton Rotary Club. In addition to being a fun, family-friendly patriotic occasion, this parade also serves as a charitable event. Jason Tesarz, chairman of the Templeton Rotary Club’s parade, described how all proceeds from donations go toward funding scholarships for Templeton high school graduates.
“We do both college and vocational scholarships,” he says. “We also send kids to a leadership camp put on by Rotary International once a year.”
Donations help give back to the community. They make it possible to award scholarships to our local high school graduates, which aids their transition into college.
In Paso Robles, the city hosted its fourth Annual 4th of July Celebration at Barney Schwartz Park. The day’s festivities started at 2 p.m. with music kicking off at 5:30 p.m.
Public Works Director Freda Berman, an organizer of the celebration, said of the attending crowd, “We did see a larger crowd this year compared to 2023. Beginning at about 8 p.m. cars began to fill all the parking lots, including the new 450-space lot at the corner of Union and Union. We had more RVs than ever in the upper Ravine lot. We believe crowd size was comparable to the bigger July 4th events in 2008 and 2009 when we averaged about 15,000 to 20,000 attendees.”
The day included the same family-friendly activities, food trucks and fireworks show to conclude the night. With fireworks prohibited in the city, this was the only place to get your fill.
“There are no plans to grow the event at this time, but we ‘tweak’ the details every year to provide the most festive July 4th party we can imagine,” Berman said.
Many who started their day in Templeton for the parade ended in Paso Robles for all of the festivities.
“Fourth of July Paso allows the community to come together to celebrate our Nation’s birthday in a fun, friendly environment,” said Berman. “We see attendees not just from every part of Paso Robles, but from all of North County and beyond. It really is a giant neighborhood block party and the city and its event sponsors are proud to be able to invite everyone to join us.”
