Tupelo Celebrates The Fourth Of July

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TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) – It’s one of the biggest Fourth of July Celebrations in North Mississippi and the rain hasn’t dampened this year’s Ballard Park events.

From a new cooking competition to fun family fellowship, Ballard Park welcomes the community to celebrate our Nation’s freedom.

It’s a day full of food, live music and family fun at Tupelo’s annual Fourth of July celebration.

This year’s new attraction is the All-America City cooking contest.

Teams from Mississippi and Alabama came to battle it out for the coveted title of “Best Ribs.”

“Well we’re cooking the baby back ribs for the competition but we’re also doing St Louis style ribs, pork tenderloin and chicken to feed everybody else,” said Chaz Kirby with 2535 Glory Grillers.

This year, Tupelo team 2535 Glory Grillers have an extra set of hands to help them cook.

David Smith was adopted from Taiwan in January and he’s celebrating America’s birthday for the first time.

“He’s fit in really well, learning English very well and we’ve been having a lot of fun,” said Mike Smith, David’s Dad.

Smith says their family is excited to teach David about America’s history.

“The Taiwan culture, they really appreciate their history and being able to share the American history with him. He likes to say ‘happy birthday America’, so he’s learning and enjoying it,” added Smith.

And David has one thing to say about this fourth of July.

” I love America,” said David.

The rain didn’t cancel Tupelo’s plans.

A firework show was also held Saturday evening.