O’Fest 2006
The annual July 4th Oceanside Festival put on by Mainstreet Oceanside featured the Freedom Days Parade down Coast Highway, a small carnival, local and regional vendors, and throngs of locals and out of towners, and was capped off with fireworks.
Got shots?
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Who, where, when?
- Where: On Coast Highway, By the Pier, Pier View Beach
- When: Jul 04 2006
- Provided By: MainStreet Oceanside
Event Information
The O’Fest beach festival began with the Freedom Days Parade, as hundreds of floats, local organizations, civic groups, and tiara crowned teens drove, rolled, and walked by. The weather was just about perfect and crowds lined Coast highway on both sides of the street to wave and cheer as the parade (which started just a little north of Oceanside Boulevard) moved by. Aside from the usual suspects like the fire department, the shriners, and a couple local politicians, we also saw a Falun Gong(?) procession dressed in bright yellow, some baton spinning middle schoolers, and a martial arts school kick their way past us.
Freedom Days Parade photos
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Next stop was the carnival and the O’Fest ‘proper’. This year the fairgrounds were somewhat cramped due to construction surrounding the area but they still have enough space to throw in the ferris wheel and the oddly shaped merry go round. The vendors (as last year) focussed on the more gastronomical of offerings, with philly cheese steak sandwiches, barbecues on wheels, and various icy drinks (non-alcoholic of course) being offered in abundance. Interesting trinkets, from animal shaped visors to woodworked vases, were also offered for sale.
O’Fest carnival and vendor photos
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And then there was light
The fireworks started at about 9PM, fired from boats off the coast of Oceanside Pier Beach - in all honesty they were much more subdued than last year and I didn’t see any specialty displays at all like the smiley face or the flag that they’ve launched in years past. All in all it was an ok performance but certainly not particularly impressive.
Oceanside fireworks photos
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