Chamber, NE SPARC partner for annual 4th of July Fireworks show

Published 10:08 am Monday, June 27, 2022

The Oxford-Lafayette County Chamber of Commerce’s annual 4th of July Fireworks Show is back and booming.

“This fireworks show has been an important part of our community for decades and the Chamber of Commerce has been the organizing group behind the 4th of July events, again, for decades,” said Pam Swain. “We get excited every year for putting on something that our community looks forward to like the firework show.”

The show will begin Monday, July 4 at 9 p.m. Fireworks will be shot from the back of Oxford High School and will be visible from all parking lots at OHS, Sisk Avenue, Oxford Conference Center, Della Davidson and other surrounding areas and businesses.

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For the full Independence Day experience, officials encourage spectators to tune to Bullseye 95.5 for a patriotic music melody.

Swain said to make the most of the event with your family or friends.

“Go out that night, get together with the family, pop the back-end of your car up and have a little picnic or there are plenty of restaurants in the area where you can get some to-go food,” she said.

The annual fireworks show always receives support from the Chamber, the City of Oxford and the Lafayette County Board of Supervisors, but each year the Chamber searches for a presenting sponsor that can help tie the event together.

NE SPARC, a North East Fiber, LLC subsidiary that offers broadband fiber internet service to members of North East Mississippi, is acting as this year’s presenting sponsor and helped to make the event possible.

“We’re excited to have Northeast Sparc as our presenting sponsor for the first year ever,” said Swain.

According to NE SPARC officials, they are just as excited to be a part of a traditional event.

“When the Chamber approached us with the opportunity to continue such a fun celebration for the community, we were thrilled,” said Sarah Brooker Bishop, NE SPARC’s Communication & Marketing manager. “NE SPARC is a hometown broadband provider so we’re always looking for ways to support the community so this is a great example of that.”

Bishop like many Oxonians and Lafayette County residents has attended the firework shows in the past and even has a very good memory attached to the event.

“I have gone to the firework shows and they’re pretty special to me because my husband actually proposed at one of the fireworks shows many years ago,” she said. “It’s a great memory for us personally.”

“We’re grateful to NE SPARC, Keith Hayward and his team that have brought such a fantastic band of fiber to homes throughout all of Lafayette County,” Swain said. “[Considering] their impact on our county through NE Sparc, it’s natural for them to be the presenting sponsor for something that’s a wide-ranging community event as far as city, as far as county and as far as citizens. We can all come together on the 4th of July and watch this beautiful firework show.”

NE SPARC recently completed fiber installation across the region providing internet and electricity to thousands of customers. The project was anticipated to take 40 months but was instead completed in 24 months, spending $46 million — $2 million under the set budget— and creating approximately 2,000 miles of fiber.

NE SPARC is currently expanding into Pontotoc County, specifically the Randolph area and will move towards the Ingomar area.