Riverfest celebration begins in Elizabeth

The annual firemen’s parade will be among today’s highlights at the Elizabeth festival.

The annual Elizabeth Firemen’s Riverfest kicked off Friday with rides, food, animals and fun for residents of all ages.

The festival, hosted by the Elizabeth Borough Volunteer Fire Department, will continue all day today.

Fire Chief Chad Rager was glad the weather cooled down Friday evening since temperatures were in the 90s this week.

“It has been about the same, nothing has changed much, but we are having fun,” Rager said. “It’s going to get busy, I can just tell. The band starts at 8 p.m. so that’s when people come.”

He added that Lincoln Borough handles fire calls for Elizabeth during the event.

On Friday, there was music in Elizabeth RiverFront Park near the event, including DJ R/T Audio at 6 p.m. and The Clintones Band/ Ultimate 90s at 8 p.m. The night ended with fireworks at 10 p.m.

Festivities will resume at 10:30 a.m. today with a K9 and Drone Demonstration from Elizabeth Township Police Department as well as a Kids Battle Barrel event at 11 a.m.

That will be followed by the annual firemen’s parade at 5 p.m., DJ R/T Audio at 6 p.m. and a performance from Buckwild Band, a country cover band at 8 p.m.

Fire departments from Allegheny, Washington, Westmoreland and Fayette counties are expected to attend 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, along with awards for coming the longest distance and for judges’ choice.

The event also includes various vendors, bouncy houses, food booths, games, a children’s train ride and a petting zoo.

Elizabeth Forward High School band director Jessica Sapp said this is the band’s second time fundraising at Riverfest by bringing in people for its dunk tank.

“We raised about $2,000 last year, and it’s for their trips that they take with a bunch of different teachers and members of the community participating,” Sapp said. “We are excited to march in the parade tomorrow.”

Patience Williams of Dipped with Patience in Elizabeth Borough was at the event for the first time with custom cheesecake cups and dessert catering.

Williams offered create your own whipped cheesecake cups with several flavors like regular, strawberry and pistachio with a selection of toppings for $5 and special combinations for $6.

“This is my first year, and I came this year because I grew up here,” Williams said. “I always came here and I knew what it was about. My most popular (cup) is the Dubai chocolate because that’s a big trend, but my personal favorite is the chocolate-covered strawberry. It is all homemade, made with real strawberries and then it gets some chocolate chips and chocolate drizzle on it.”

Fire department president Chuck Smith said the department used to do street fairs at the end of July. There used to be a seven-day street fair, but it was cut down to four days and now two. He is also grateful that the weather moderated a bit.

“We are having a great time now that the weather has cooled off a little,” Smith said.

Rager and Smith said earlier this week that they don’t do Riverfest every year to make money, but rather for the community because the community is good to the fire department.

“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 because any civic organization,” 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. We wouldn’t have the fancy equipment that we have without our community.”

Several hundred residents attended the event Friday, including Elizabeth Forward High School incoming freshmen Ava Ruhl, Rylee Selvage and Emilia Legge, who said they enjoy the event every year.

Elizabeth resident Katie Ferrari with her son Enzo, 3, as well as Ferrari’s neighbor, Brittany Kirk with her kids Summer and Sunney, 2, got to enjoy the petting zoo at Riverfest.

Ferrari and Kirk said they enjoyed coming this year with their kids.

“We usually come and get food,” Ferrari said. “We get here at 6 p.m. to fuel ourselves. Honestly, the best part is going down where the band is when the music starts. Everybody is down there, it gets really busy down there and everyone starts dancing. We always have a good time.”

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.