Fairfield has a population of 120,000 — not exactly a small town, but its Fourth of July celebration Thursday had all the welcome trappings of one. Sponsored by the City of Fairfield, the 2024 Independence Day parade kicked off at 10 a.m.
with 50 participating organizations, including a no-surprise contingent of Fairfield motorcycle police officers followed by an honor guard, Fairfield Fire Department vehicles, crews and families, parade Grand Marshal Don Pace, Solano County beauty queens, and the Air Force Band of the Golden West from Travis Air Force Base. And that was only the first 45 minutes of the 90-minute “American Journey.” It included dozens of other groups that queued up at the corner of Webster and Kentucky streets to Great Jones, then made their way down Texas Street to Washington, near the County Government Center, where the parade route ended.
It doesn’t get much more down home if an Independence Day parade includes Girl Scouts of Northern California, Chicano Visions, Boy Scouts of America, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Fairfield Pacific Little League, several church congregations, and, of course, car clubs. Families, infants to seniors, lined Texas Street, and were seated in folding lawn chairs. Most everyone, an estimated 3,000 people, sought comfort under curbside shade trees as temperatures rose from the mid-80s, climbed quickly and were expected top 100 degrees by mid-afternoon under clear skies.
Retired city of Vacaville employee David Billallon, 72, .