Bristol Fourth of July Parade

The Military, Civic and Firemen's Parade
The start of the 231st parade in 2016
Genre	Parade
Date(s)	Independence Day
Frequency	Annual
Location(s)	Bristol, Rhode Island, United States
Years active	231
Inaugurated	1785
Most recent	July 4, 2016
Attendance	50,000
Patron(s)	Bristol Fourth of July General Committee
Website
Bristol 4th of July

Bristol Fourth of July Parade, or Bristol Fourth of July Celebration (officially known as the Military, Civic and Firemen's Parade), founded in 1785, is a nationally known Fourth of July parade in Bristol, Rhode Island. The parade is part of the oldest Fourth of July celebration in the United States of America.

The annual official and historic celebrations (Patriotic Exercises) were established in 1785 by Rev. Henry Wight of the First Congregational Church and veteran of the Revolutionary War, and later by Rev. Wight as the Parade, and continue today, organized by the Bristol Fourth of July Committee. The festivities officially start on June 14, Flag Day, beginning a period of outdoor concerts, soap-box races and a firefighters' muster at Independence Park. The celebration climaxes on July 4 with the oldest annual parade in the United States, "The Military, Civic and Firemen's Parade", an event that draws over 200,000 people from Rhode Island and around the world. These elaborate celebrations give Bristol its nickname, "America's most patriotic town". In 1785 the Bristol Fourth of July Celebration (beginning as the Patriotic Exercises) was founded and the Fourth of July has been celebrated every year in Bristol since that date, although the parade itself was canceled several times.

Buddy Cianci, Providence's longest-serving mayor, had a long and controversial history with the Bristol parade. In the 1970's, parade rules stipulated that only elected federal, state, and Bristol town officials were invited to participate; mayors of Providence were not invited. In spit of this, Providence mayor Buddy Cianci marched in the parade every year after his 1975 election, in violation of the rules, until parade organizers sent a letter censuring him after the 1979 parade. The Bristol Town Council explicitly voted to ban Cianci from the 1980 parade, a year in which Cianci was running for governor against J. Joseph Garrahy, who, as sitting governor, was welcome to march. The Bristol police chief vowed to arrest anyone who caused a disturbance. A record 300,000 spectators showed up for the 1980 parade, waiting to see what would happen. In the end, when Cianci's helicopter touched down at Colt High School, officials backed down in the face of overwhelming crowd support for Cianci; he received bigger cheers than any other guest that day.