What makes a good Fourth of July holiday? Depends on who you ask.

Some may say that there is no better way to celebrate your independence then rocking out by listening to a ton of bands. Others want to grab their families and take ‘em out to the ball game. But regardless, most everybody wants to chow down while seeing some crazy, pretty, loud stuff blow up in the night sky.

With that being said, here are a few of the things you can do to celebrate your Independence Day weekend.

Coleman Hawkins Park

Usually, thanks to the Sounds of Summer concert series, Coleman Hawkins Park is rockin’ with some free live music every Friday evening. But the series is taking today off for the Fourth, which means there’s no music, right? Wrong!

The St. Joseph Music Foundation is taking over to hold its own St. Joseph Freedom Festival from noon to 9 p.m. today.

Michael Fuson, vice president of the St. Joseph Music Foundation, says that this event is kind of a continuation of a summer concert event put on last year in Civic Center Park. But location-wise, the opening left in the Sounds of Summer schedule gave them a chance to give it another go in a new location.

“When the Downtown Association said they would be taking the Fourth off, we thought it would be a good park to put it in,” Fuson says.

Bob Schultz will be emceeing the festivities, and there will be seven bands featured at the Felix Street gazebo: Britt Small, The Act, Randy McKnight, Amenazar Thrush, Chris Jamison and friends, Midnight Express and Ten Until Midnyte. The live music will be broadcast for the world to hear via the Web with the webcast of the St. Joseph Music Foundation’s online radio station at http://www.stjosephmusicfoundation.org/.

Aside from the music, there also will be hot dogs, beer, soda and water for sale. While there will not be any fireworks, there will be two auctions, at 4 and 8 p.m., where family packs of fireworks valued at $500 each will be given away, so you can create your own big bang.

Fuson believes that the St. Joseph Freedom Festival could be just the thing to get St. Joe in the spirit of things.

“Everybody’s off, it makes a good long weekend and everybody has fun,” Fuson says. “The idea was to kick off the whole weekend.”

Phil Welch Stadium

If you choose to celebrate your Fourth of July at Phil Welch Stadium at 2600 Southwest Parkway, you may be required to bring a few extra things to make an eventful Independence Day weekend. Luckily, thanks to the St. Joe Mustangs, those extra things will consist of a baseball glove, an appetite for cheap food and drinks and an All-American sporting tradition.

“Obviously, it’s a cliche, but baseball’s America’s pastime,” says Dan Gerson, owner of the St. Joe Mustangs baseball team. “Everybody’s played baseball ever since they were a kid ... It just seems like it would be something that goes hand in hand.”

The St. Joe Mustangs are making sure that both tonight and July 4 are packed with events and activities. For their match against the Mac ‘N’ Seitz Athletics at 7 p.m. tonight, the Mustangs are declaring the day a “Salute To Heroes.” All law enforcement, fireman, EMTs, active military and veterans are admitted free, and their families get in half-off. The game will kick off with a flyover from the 139th Air National Guard. After the final out, there will be a fireworks display followed by a chance for kids to run around the bases and play catch on the field.

As for the Fourth of July, the Mustangs are hosting a pre-game picnic starting at 3 p.m., with inflatable rides and games that are free with a game ticket, and beers, hot dogs and corn on the cob for a buck each. The team will take on the Beatrice Bruins at 7 p.m. Rick Muntean, chief operating officer and general manager for the St. Joe Mustangs, says that while Mustangs have post-game fireworks after every Saturday home game, the Fourth of July fireworks will be even bigger.

“I imagine the third (of July) will be topped by the Fourth, but both will be well worth your money to come out,” he says.

Heritage Park and Terrible’s St. Jo Frontier Casino

We’ve already talked about a new Fourth of July event and one featuring a new baseball team. But the one that’s the oldest and arguably the biggest is St. Joseph’s 28th annu­al Fourth of July Celebration.

The event will once again be in coordination with Terrible’s St. Jo Frontier Casino and will have events taking place on July 4 at three different locations on the Missouri Riverfront.

First, you can grab some grub at Terrible’s St. Jo Frontier Casino’s “Boomin’ Barbecue” beginning at 6 p.m. According to Sharon Ritchey, the city’s special events coordinator, you’ll be able to scarf down hot dogs, tenderloin, nachos and hamburgers and wash it down with “liquid refreshments” for people of all ages. And you can do it all while hearing live music from local R&B/blues group Page 2 at 7 p.m.

Gates will open at 7 p.m. July 4 for entry into Heritage Park Softball Complex. Kids and adults can enjoy the playgrounds and keep cool thanks to refreshments for sale. There also will be live music of a different sort when the Saint Joseph Symphony Concert Band, under the direction of Mike Mathews, performs a medley of patriotic songs at 8:45 p.m. under the pavilion. They will play up until the big fireworks display, which should begin at roughly 9:40 p.m.

So, about that fireworks display, the one where there will be more than 1,200 shells shot off by Aerial FX: It can be viewed from plenty of spots. Besides the two places mentioned above, there also will be parking available in the lot of the Remington Nature Center at MacArthur Drive starting at 7 p.m. And when it’s all said and done, you can leave the grounds, exiting left to Highland or right to MacArthur Drive. Ritchey says that no matter what spot you pick, you’ll have plenty of reasons to come down for the annual display instead of just watching it from home.

“It’s just a real nice setting up there because you’re close,” Ritchey says. “If you like big and booming, you’ve got it. If you like the really pretty, you got that too, and you can see it really well from all three vantage points.”