FOR RELEASE: Jan. 2025 — Due to construction traffic challenges, the annual Freedom Festival fireworks event will not occur in 2025.
Construction on the Leo-Grabill bridge, which connects Leo-Cedarville and Grabill near the event’s venue, Riverside Gardens Park, means the bridge will be out of commission throughout summer 2025. This, combined with the construction at the Clay Street and SR1 intersection, will impede safe traffic patterns for the major influx of traffic the festival brings to Leo-Cedarville each year from around the region.
Security personnel and the Town of Leo-Cedarville have been made aware and agree that the safety of citizens and attendees must remain top priority, and there is not a viable solution wherein traffic would not be backed up into residential areas for this event that draws nearly 10,000 to the region each year.
For the last two decades, the Freedom Festival has been entirely volunteer-run, supported by generous donations to cover its $30,000 price tag.
Since the event’s inception, the Leo-Cedarville Foundation, a local nonprofit working to enhance community development efforts and the quality of life in the greater Leo area, has hosted this annual event, driving thousands to Leo-Cedarville each summer the weekend before Fourth of July weekend.
However, the nonprofit is restructuring to better serve its community, transitioning from primarily hosting events and instead rising to meet the greatest need of the community: serving as a liaison and connector to the greater regional community’s resources and utilizing its nonprofit status to help catalyze initiatives by committee.
As such, the organization will no longer run or host the Freedom Festival.
Whether you look to nearly every public art installation in Leo, to its downtown revitalization or Leo’s highlighting in greater regional events such as the Allen County Bicentennial, the Leo-Cedarville Foundation’s advocacy and resource connection has played a major role in bringing community development opportunities to the Town.
It is the desire of the Leo-Cedarville Foundation to continue that momentum, helping to equip their community to seize every opportunity that might come its way, including grant opportunities, facilitating and housing by subsidiary committee recurring economic drivers such as the Leo-Cedarville Farmers Market and catalyzing Illuminating Leo, liaising to the NewAllen Alliance, eastern Allen County’s rural advocacy group and more. Moving away from hands-on event planning will allow for more capacity in its professional community development assistance and resource connection.
The organization has worked diligently to get the Freedom Festival to a point where its processes and contacts are well-documented and Town buy-in is higher than ever. Organizations or entities interested in taking on this initiative for 2026 post-construction and beyond may inquire at leocedarvillefoundation.com/freedom-festival/. (Interest form will be left active through January 2026.)
The Leo-Cedarville Foundation wants to thank the countless businesses, organizations and volunteers who have worked tirelessly and given generously to make this free community event possible for the past two decades, and looks forward to the future opportunities possible for the greater Leo community.
Thank you to our sponsors of our 2024 Leo-Cedarville Foundation Freedom Festival!
Thanks to all who made the Leo-Cedarville Foundation Freedom Festival possible!