Thousands gather in Windsor for Kaboom! festival and fireworks celebration

Thousands gathered for the Windsor Kaboom! Fireworks Show Wednesday night, getting an early glimpse of the spectacular fireworks displays planned across the North Bay to celebrate Independence Day.

The Windsor Kaboom! festival at Keiser Park featured a few hours of live entertainment by local bands before the fireworks presentation started at 9:30 p.m. A face-painting booth, rock-climbing wall and inflatable slides provided fun for the children in the crowd and typical fair foods like corn dogs and shaved ice were plentiful.

Most fireworks events in Sonoma County will take place Thursday, with fireworks shows slated in Healdsburg, Santa Rosa, Petaluma and Sonoma. Only Sebastopol joined Windsor in shooting off holiday fireworks on Wednesday. Monte Rio will wait until Friday night for a fireworks blast over the Russian River.

Revelers who plan to watch a fireworks display Thursday can expect “perfect holiday weather,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Ryan Walburn. The holiday forecast calls for highs in the low-to-mid 80s and lows in the mid-50s.

“We’re in a pretty quiet weather pattern right now. If the clouds make it into the Sonoma Valley in the morning, they should burn off pretty quickly,” Walburn said. “It should be a perfect kind of day.”

Windsor residents Malcolm Beltran and Kayla Leon said they came out to see the fireworks, but were thrilled by the music and food, too.

Leon has attended the event every year since it started in 2011, while Beltran was making his first appearance at the Kaboom! celebration.

“It’s what they do for the Fourth of July in town,” Leon said. “Windsor doesn’t do much.”

Beltran said it compared favorably to the Healdsburg fireworks show, which he usually attends on July 4.

“It’s a lot bigger,” he said. “Healdsburg doesn’t do food or anything, or live music. It’s just more of a party environment.”

Santa Rosa resident Richard Cook Jr. said he’d been to the Kaboom! festivities twice before, and keeps coming back because he loves the festival atmosphere. He was looking forward to seeing the fireworks when the sun went down.

“They’re great. They almost compare to the Boom in Santa Rosa,” he said.

San Francisco residents Bill and Barbara Miles said they were dining at a local restaurant Wednesday afternoon when a server recommended they check out Windsor’s fireworks show.

“I like the family atmosphere here. It’s very relaxing,” Barbara Miles said.

Something about the holiday event puzzled Bill Miles.

“Why don’t they do it on the Fourth? We’ve been trying to figure that out,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Andrew Beale at 707-521-5205 or andrew.beale@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @iambeale.