By Dewey Terrill
JC Post
Casi Joy and Run With It performed for Freedom Fest in downtown Junction City Monday night followed by fireworks to cap off a five-day Fourth of July celebration.
Casi Joy, from Smithfield, Missouri, performed a variety of music styles from gospel to country for the crowd in Heritage park.
Run With It including Junction City native Miguel Caraballo performed.
Freedom Fest JC Co-chair Nate Butler said it's been a great year. "All the vendors are excited. They're looking forward to what the future holds for them here. The concerts, the bands, have just been tremendous."
Freedom Fest JC will return next year. The plan is to make it bigger, explained Butler. "We're looking at some bigger bands, some national level bands, like Casi Joy. She's a national level.
The 1st Infantry Division Rock band, Silver Bullet and Foghat performed for fans at Sundown Salute in the Milford City Park. The chair for the Sundown Salute committee Michelle Stimatze noted overall the celebration was good for a change of venue. The event was moved out of Junction City to Milford this year.
Diamond Rio drew a big crowd for their performance Sunday night. "We had at least 2,500 people here." She estimated turnout for the Foghat concert Monday evening at about one thousand.
As for the future of Sundown Salute Stimatze indicated a return to Junction City was unlikely but future plans for the celebration will be determined at a future point.