Festivities for the Indiana Dunes State Park 5th annual Fireworks on the Lakefront event took place at 6pm Saturday, July 5th. It was postponed due to weather. The 2-3,000 parking spaces filled up fast as people gathered from all over the Porter County area to celebrate. The Duneland Chamber of Commerce, the towns of Chesterton, Porter and Burns Harbor along with local businesses and individuals collaborated to fund and organize the event.
Brad Bumgardner, an Interpretive Naturalist for the Indiana Dunes State Park said, “I think it’s a great example of partnerships coming together to have so many people out here working. It’s better than a single town show.”
In addition to the three towns joining together to put on the show, the show itself spans multiple local beaches. According to Bumgardner, last year, upwards of 13,000 people showed spanning the State Park Beach, Porter Beach, Dune Acres, National Lake Shore’s Porter Beach, Kimmel, Lakeview and Dunbar beaches.
For Bumgardner and his associates, however, the fireworks show is more than just a celebration of the nation’s independence.
“It’s a chance to bring the nature center to the beach and educate people about what we do—about the natural and cultural resources here—and really show people as they’re coming to the beach for the fireworks tonight that the Indiana Dunes is much more than just a beach,” Bumgardner said.
Along with the nature center tent, the public was also invited to partake in food and dance to the sounds of the live music performed by the band Chris and Lou and sponsored by County Line Orchard. Many also chose to buy glow sticks, play Frisbee and catch. Two locals Rusty Allen and Steve Brown even spent three hours building a life size alligator completely out of sand.
The fireworks display showed an impressive amount of community effort. As the fireworks began to light up the sky announcing the end of the evening festivities, another successful show marked another independence day for the gathered communities.
“This is a chance to bring the nature center to the beach and educate people about what we do; the natural and cultural resources here, and really show people as they’re coming to the beach for the fireworks tonight, the Indiana dunes is much more than just a beach, too. Live animals; Smoky the bear.” Cookie Ferguson of Interpretive Services said. “This helps in giving kids a hands on experience with different animals that are native to this area. We have skins for the kids to feel and touch. We have a ship wreck three blocks out in the lake that people can visit –the JD Marshall. A squall came up and flipped the ship, the captain came back to shore, commandeered a life boat, went back and saved the people.”
All around the Fireworks on the Lakefront event was a great success. The people of Northwest Indiana can’t wait for next year!
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