America's Freedom Festival at Provo (also America's Freedom Festival or Freedom Festival) is a private, non-profit foundation known for organizing more than 25 annual patriotic events in and around

Provo, Utah Provo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Utah County, Utah, United States. It is south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front, and lies between the cities of Orem, Utah, Orem to the north and Springville, Utah, Springville to the south ...

. It is one of the largest and longest (usually May - July) patriotic celebrations in the nation. The organization's stated mission is to "celebrate, teach, honor, and strengthen the traditional American values of family, freedom, God, and country." America's Freedom Festival sponsors one of the nation's largest Fourth of July celebrations, Stadium of Fire, held each year at LaVell Edwards Stadium on the campus of

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

. Recent performers at Stadium of Fire include

Journey (band) Journey is an American Rock music, rock band formed in San Francisco in 1973 by former members of Santana (band), Santana, the Steve Miller Band, and Frumious Bandersnatch. The band consists of Neal Schon on guitars and vocals (the last remai ...

Cirque du Soleil Cirque du Soleil (, ; ) is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, Montreal, Saint-Michel, Montreal, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 Jun ...

Carrie Underwood Carrie Marie Underwood (born March 10, 1983) is an American singer and songwriter. She rose to prominence after winning the fourth season of ''American Idol'' in 2005, returning as a judge beginning with the twenty-third season. Underwood's f ...

Brad Paisley Brad Douglas Paisley (born October 28, 1972) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His first success came in 1997 as the writer of David Kersh's "Another You (David Kersh song), Another You". After this, he signed with ...

, and the

Blue Man Group Blue Man Group is an American performance art company formed in New York City in 1987. It is known for its stage productions that incorporate many kinds of music and art, both popular and obscure. Its performers, known as Blue Men, have their ...

. The

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and superv ...

has chosen to broadcast parts of the festival to millions of servicemen and women serving abroad in the Armed Forces for the past several years. The festivities usually include a patriotic service, hot air balloon launches, a carnival, and a parade. Among the most popular events included is a Colonial Heritage fair, in which colonial skills, craftsmanship, and history are taught and celebrated.

Controversies

In 2008, disbarred attorney Jack Thompson was awarded the Freedom Award by the Freedom Festival, despite trying to remove first amendment protections for video games and social media posts. In May, 2015, America's Freedom Festival disallowed the group Mormons Building Bridges from marching in the America's Freedom Festival Parade, after an unsuccessful bid to join the parade the prior year. Mormons Building Bridges was planning a march of gay and

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

military veterans. No explanation was given for the rejection. On July 3, 2017, Encircle, a Provo-based

LGBT+ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The group i ...

resource center reported that they were no longer allowed to participate in the America's Freedom Festival Parade, despite prior approval. They were told that they could not participate because they were being classified as an “advocacy group." State Senator Jim Dabakis called on the state legislature to discontinue the $100,000 per year funding the state provided the festival, stating, "to force state taxpayers to participate and support this board, which is clearly over the line, is morally reprehensible."

References

External links

*
Official websiteAmerica's Freedom Festival records, MSS 5999
at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library,

Festivals in Utah Independence Day (United States) festivals Tourist attractions in Utah County, Utah Tourist attractions in Provo, Utah {{US-festival-stub