Last Saturday, families and friends from all around Newton County withstood the summer heat to indulge in a night of savory bites and frozen treats, live music from GLOW Band and the crowd favorite firework show at Porterdale’s Village Blast celebration. 

For the past several years, the city of Porterdale has been bringing the community together through the Village Blast Independence Day event.

“This event really brings people together; they were all year waiting for this to come out and mingle with their family and friends,” said Monika Singh, the city’s downtown director.

Singh says Village Blast draws a crowd of over 2,000 people each year. Chairs and blankets filled with anticipated attendees lined the street outside of the Porterdale Gymnasium, eager for a great view of the fireworks. 

Just across the street, food trucks from local businesses like Issa Funnel and chain restaurants like Ponko Chicken and SluttyVegan served an array of salty and sweet eats. 

In addition to the food, fireworks and music, Village Blast provided activities like face painting and bouncy houses as entertainment for the kids. 

Covington resident and mother of three, Alyssa Miller, attended Village Blast for the first time this year and says she enjoys the event. 

“I like the fact that they have a lot of things for the kids to do,” Miller said.

To keep attendees safe and the event running smoothly, Singh said that the city works with the Newton County Sheriff’s Department, the Porterdale Police Department, EMS, public works and city council members months in advance. 

“It’s teamwork to be honest,” Singh said. “I can’t do it all by myself.”

Porterdale Police Chief Jason Cripps said he and his whole department arrived at 3 p.m., three hours before the start of the celebration, to help set up and put safety precautions into place.

“I’d rather have them and not need them than need them and not have them,” Cripps said.

City Councilwoman Leigh Canada also attended Village Blast because she wants to show up for her community and support the city of Porterdale. 

Canada grew up in a small town in Massachusetts, and after living a life working in corporate America, she decided to move to Porterdale to regain that small-town feel.  

“I love walking down the street and people beep, ‘Hey Leigh,”’ Canada said. 

Porterdale Mayor Michael Patterson has been attending Village Blast since its inception. He believes the celebration gets better and better with each passing year. 

The ever-enthusiastic mayor says he tries his best to keep events that the community enjoys like Village Blast up and running.

“Every year it comes up in our budget and [the] city council always is supposed to support this and invest in this because of how much it brings the community together,” Patterson said.

When he’s not helping run the event, Patterson enjoys his favorite, a watermelon Kona Ice and spends time with his family. 

“It takes a lot of teamwork, it takes a lot of vision,” Patterson said. “We have a great team with Monika Singh, our downtown director, she is absolutely wonderful at coordinating all of this. But it’s a team effort…and our city council really believes in community.”

Village Blast is just one of the many community events the city of Porterdale puts on. Between this, the Christmas Parade and the Halloween Festival, Porterdale is always finding ways to grow the town. 

“... It has a small town feel to it, but big things are happening in this small town.”

Photo gallery below by Michael Bandoo