Elizabeth VFD gearing up for annual Riverfest
The event promises food, music, family fun, fireworks and, lots more.
Two days full of riverfront fun for the whole family is taking place in downtown Elizabeth Borough this weekend.
The annual Elizabeth Firemen’s Riverfest, which is a local festival with games and events hosted by the Elizabeth Borough Volunteer Fire Department, will return this Friday from 6 p.m. to around 10 p.m. and all day Saturday.
“That will be a nice time as it always is,” borough Council President Timothy Guffey said. “It’s going to be a little bit hot on Friday, and hopefully it starts to cool off a little bit on Saturday, but probably not by much.”
Elizabeth Borough Volunteer Fire Department Chief Chad Rager, who is in charge of the event, said bands will be performing by the dock this year as the department sets up the fair Thursday evening.
“I started (planning) probably around January,” Rager said. “Riverfest pretty much runs itself now. We have been doing it for so long it’s just plugging everything back in from last year. Why would we change something that works? It goes well and we have a nice turn out.”
On Friday, there will be music in Elizabeth River-Front Park near the event, including DJ R/T Audio at 6 p.m. and The Clintone’s Band/Ultimate 90s at 8 p.m. Fireworks will start around 10 p.m.
At 10:30 a.m. Saturday, there will be a K-9 and drone demonstration from Elizabeth Township Police Department as well as a Kids Battle Barrel event at 11 a.m., the annual firemen’s parade at 5 p.m., DJ by R/T Audio at 6 p.m. and a performance by Buckwild at 8 p.m.
Fire departments are expected to attend from Allegheny, Washington, Westmoreland and Fayette counties for the parade, with a few coming from out of state as well. Awards are given for the best appearing and best equipped fire trucks in a number of categories, plus awards for coming the longest distance and for judges’ choice.
Sponsors for this weekend’s event include U.S. Steel, Devie Rollison, Realty ONE Group Gold Standard, Mitchell Plumbing, Heating and Cooling, Moses Electrical Services, Noble Environmental, Olympus Energy and several other sponsors.
“I do the sponsors and my wife does the vendors. U.S. Steel gave us $5,000, and if it wasn’t for our sponsors, we wouldn’t be able to do it,” Rager said.
The event also includes various vendors, bouncy houses, food booths, games, a kid’s train ride and a petting zoo.
Fire department President Chuck Smith said the department used to do street fairs at the end of July, which was cut back to four days and now it’s two days.
“It went full circle. Membership started to shrink, and someone said, ‘Why don’t we do this’ and another crew took over Riverfest,” Smith said. “Now that crew hasn’t done Riverfest for 20 years, and we said we would take it over, so it’s gone full circle.”
Smith added that he is excited for the event even though it can be busy for the volunteers.
Rager and Smith said overall they do not hold Riverfest every year to make money, but rather to give back to the community for its support.
“If all we did was cover expenses, and we got to the point where we just did it to cover our expenses, I would still say do it because it’s something for the community,” Smith said. “When they stop giving to the community, that’s when the community stops giving to them.
“I have seen plenty of fire departments, EMS services, anything else, they stopped doing stuff for their communities, and their communities stopped giving back,” he added. “We wouldn’t have the fancy equipment that we have without our community.”
