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Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover firefighter Griffin Murphy lets Brandon Skinner of the Lake Cyrus community sit in the driver's seat of a Hoover fire truck at the 2023 Celebrate Hoover Day at Veterans Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, April 29, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
The More Cowbell band plays at the 2023 Celebrate Hoover Day at Veterans Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, April 29, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
The More Cowbell band plays at the 2023 Celebrate Hoover Day at Veterans Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, April 29, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
People check out two of Hoover's newest ladder trucks decked out in Hoover High orange and Spain Park High blue at the 2023 Celebrate Hoover Day at Veterans Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, April 29, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Girls spin in a carnival ride at the 2023 Celebrate Hoover Day at Veterans Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, April 29, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Jordan Barnes, 4, of the Riverchase community, rides a pony at the 2023 Celebrate Hoover Day at Veterans Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, April 29, 2023, as his uncle, Damien Glenn walks beside him.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
People check out the petting zoo at the 2023 Celebrate Hoover Day at Veterans Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, April 29, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
People listen to the More Cowbell band at the 2023 Celebrate Hoover Day at Veterans Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, April 29, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
People listen to the More Cowbell band at the 2023 Celebrate Hoover Day at Veterans Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, April 29, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Jon and Haley Edmondson and their children of Alabaster, Alabama, eat shaved ice at the 2023 Celebrate Hoover Day at Veterans Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, April 29, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Children build with Lego blocks at the 2023 Celebrate Hoover Day at Veterans Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, April 29, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Patrick Torro goes down a slide at the 2023 Celebrate Hoover Day at Veterans Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, April 29, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Timothy Dorsey of the Rocky Ridge community pets a duck in the petting zoo at the 2023 Celebrate Hoover Day at Veterans Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, April 29, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Thomas Massicano of the Green Valley community plays on an inflatable at the 2023 Celebrate Hoover Day at Veterans Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, April 29, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Martt Martin of Hoover's Southlake community checks out a 1951 Chevrolet pickup at the Dixie Vintage Antique Automobile Club show at the 2023 Celebrate Hoover Day at Veterans Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, April 29, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Raine Ballinger, 2, of The Ridge at The Grove community goes down a slide at the 2023 Celebrate Hoover Day at Veterans Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, April 29, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Alexandra Naylor, left, and Tetiana Filatova of the Windchase community in north Shelby County eat apple pie and ice cream at the 2023 Celebrate Hoover Day at Veterans Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, April 29, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
People spin in a carnival ride at the 2023 Celebrate Hoover Day at Veterans Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, April 29, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Julia Hartsock, 4, of Hoover, Alabama, gets her face painted at the Winonah School of Cosmetology booth at the 2023 Celebrate Hoover Day at Veterans Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, April 29, 2023.
Greystone’s Nicole Carney had never been to Celebrate Hoover Day at Veterans Park before, but she came Saturday and brought her two daughters, Piper and Presley, and they’re definitely coming back next year, she said.
Only next year, they’re coming earlier because they got there at 1:30 p.m. with only an hour and a half left to spend at the annual citywide festival, Carney said.
The Carneys moved to Greystone from Tennessee about two years ago and heard about Celebrate Hoover Day from a friend of one of the daughters who had been before and wanted to check it out this year.
The Carney girls said they had fun riding the carnival rides, jumping on the inflatables and playing on the playground, but they were disappointed they didn’t get to ride the ponies or get shaved ice because they ran out of time. Next year, they should get there an hour before it opens so they can take in all the fun, one of the girls suggested.
Celebrate Hoover Day is the biggest citywide festival. Kelly Peoples, the city’s new events manager, guessed they probably had 15,000 to 20,000 people there, but it’s hard to tell because there are multiple entrance points to the spacious park and people came and went throughout the four-hour event.
One of the biggest changes this year was there was only one main entertainment act on the stage instead of multiple types of performers. This year’s featured act was More Cowbell, a band named after a “Saturday Night Live” sketch from 2000 that starred Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken and that plays cover songs by everyone from Marvin Gaye to Florida Georgia Line, Prince, Taylor Swift and Journey.
There also was a car show by the Dixie Vintage Antique Automobile Club, carnival rides, inflatables, a petting zoo, bungee jump station, pony rides, face painting, airbrush tattoo station, displays of special equipment and vehicles by the Hoover police and fire departments and an exhibitor tent with businesses and organizations from the Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce.
Multiple food vendors were present, including Black Box Barbecue, El Tejano Taco Truck, Kono Ice, Krazy Good BBQ, Michelle’s Chocolate Laboratory, Southern Coffee & Waffles, Temper Coffee, The Craft Burger and What’s Your Flav shaved ice.
The city, as usual, also gave out free ice cream and apple pie from a 10-foot-wide apple pie cooked in a giant oven.
The festival started at 11 a.m. with a ceremony to dedicate brick pavers in Veterans Plaza in honor of eight veterans.
The city also kicked off an effort to obtain public input on a Parks and Public Spaces Plan that will be used to guide city decisions and expenses regarding blueways, greenways, trails, parks, public spaces and recreational programming. Displays were on hand in a tent at Celebrate Hoover Days, and people were invited to submit comments and participate in an online survey. The survey can be found at hooverparksurvey.org/public.
