Riverdale Park Riverdale
Riverdale's own Fourth of July celebration, run by the city and anchored on one long day at Riverdale Park
Old Glory Days, a cannon before dawn and a swim night in the next city
Riverdale runs its own Independence Day celebration, and its name is Old Glory Days. The city organises the whole thing, anchored on the Fourth of July: a cannon blast before dawn, a sunrise service, a fun run and a breakfast, a mid-morning parade that finishes at Riverdale Park, vendor booths and a car show, and fireworks after dark. It is free to walk in. The one part held outside the city is the swim night, because Riverdale has no pool of its own and rents the one in neighboring Roy.
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah
Updated October 2026
The short answer
Old Glory Days is Riverdale's own Fourth of July celebration, and the city runs the whole thing itself, with no outside committee or chamber behind it. It is anchored on the Fourth, with a couple of evening events in the days just before, and almost all of it happens at Riverdale Park off Parker Drive. The day starts before dawn with a cannon blast, then a sunrise service, a fun run, a fundraiser breakfast, a mid-morning parade that finishes at the park, booths and a car show through the afternoon, and fireworks after dark. It is free to walk in. The one event held outside the city is the swim night, which Riverdale rents at the pool in neighboring Roy because it has none of its own. The city posts the year's full schedule, and the parade route, on its events page in the spring.
The day
One long day the city runs itself, from a cannon before dawn to fireworks after dark
Old Glory Days is the one big day on Riverdale's own calendar, and the first useful thing about it is who runs it. The city organises the celebration itself and takes the parade applications directly. There is no separate festival committee, foundation or chamber of commerce in the background, so whatever you need to know about the day, from a parade entry to a road closure, comes from one place. That is not how most Utah city celebrations are arranged, and it makes the city's own events page the source worth trusting for it.
The celebration is built around the Fourth of July, so the anchor never moves even though the shape of the week around it does. A couple of evening events, an outdoor movie among them, run in the days just before, and the Fourth itself carries almost everything. Because the Fourth lands on a different weekday each year, the spread of days shifts with it, which is why the city posts the full schedule in the spring when parade applications open. Look at that page from about April, and treat any date circulating elsewhere as unconfirmed until it traces back to the city.
The Fourth in Riverdale starts early. The day opens before dawn with a cannon blast, the kind of thing a small city either does or does not do, and this one does. Anybody choosing an address here should know the Fourth begins with an artillery piece before most households are awake, and that it is on the published program rather than an accident. After it come a sunrise service, a fun run and a fundraiser breakfast, then the parade in mid-morning, vendor booths, a car show and entertainment through the afternoon, and fireworks to close the night. Almost all of it sits in and around Riverdale Park, off Parker Drive at the north end of the city by the river.
The parade steps off mid-morning and finishes at Riverdale Park. The city sets the route fresh each year and publishes it on the same events page when applications open, so check there for the current streets rather than a map somebody drew. Watching costs nothing, and so do the headline events, the cannon, the sunrise service and the fireworks. A handful of the participation events carry a small entry fee, the fun run, the children's race, the pickleball tournaments and the fundraiser breakfast among them, and those numbers change from year to year, so confirm the current ones with the city when you sign up.
The swim night
The one part of the celebration that happens in another city
The most revealing line in the whole program is the swim night, because it is held in a different city. Riverdale schedules a resident swim night as part of its own Fourth of July celebration and holds it at the Roy Aquatic Center in neighboring Roy, free to Riverdale residents who show proof of residency at the gate. Riverdale has no municipal swimming pool of its own.
The arrangement is a standing one, not a one-off. The city rents the Roy pool for its residents through the summer, running a swim-night series from June through August, and its budget carries a line named for the Roy complex it buys the access from. A city that writes its neighbor's pool into its own chart of accounts has made a permanent decision about how it provides one amenity, and the Fourth of July swim night is one evening of that larger arrangement.
For a household weighing an address, the practical version is short. Riverdale offers a splash pad at Riverdale Park in the warm months and organised swim nights at the pool in the next city. If a swimming pool is something your household wants close by, that need is met across a city line here, and it is worth knowing before rather than after. The parks page has the splash pad and the recreation building in full.
The swim night, in short
Getting there
This is the only event on Riverdale's own celebration that takes place outside the city, and it goes to the neighbor on the west side. The other named venue for the day is Riverdale Park at 4300 S. Parker Drive, at the north end of the city by the river, where the evening events and the parade finish sit.
The dates, the entry fees and the exact parade route change every year. Riverdale posts the current program on its special events page in the spring, when the parade applications open. Use that page for this year's dates, this year's fees and this year's route, and treat anything you find elsewhere as unconfirmed until it traces back to the city. The one thing that does not move is the anchor: the celebration is built around the Fourth of July.
The rest of the year
A short city calendar, and the everyday things Riverdale shares with its neighbors
Beyond the Fourth, Riverdale keeps a short calendar and is honest about it. The city runs an Easter egg hunt on the Saturday before Easter, a Halloween party in October, and the summer swim nights from June through August. That, alongside Old Glory Days, is the whole of the city's own events list.
What Riverdale does not run itself is as telling as what it does, and it is the practical thing to understand about a small city. There is no city farmers market and no summer concert series here; those you reach in a neighboring city. The pattern goes past events, too: Riverdale has no municipal pool, so its residents swim in Roy; no library branch of its own, with the nearest branches in Roy and on Adams Avenue; and no dog park inside the city. Riverdale is four and a half square miles wrapped around one of northern Utah's busiest retail roads, and it shares several everyday amenities with the cities it interlocks with. For anyone deciding on an address, that is worth knowing in advance, because the practical calendar and the practical amenities of a home here are those of four or five cities, not one.
The steady calendar, day to day, is not the events list at all. It is the recreation program the city runs out of the Community Center on Parker Drive, youth sport, open play basketball and pickleball, an after school club and group fitness classes. That is the building the year actually runs out of.
Living with it
What a small city's own calendar tells you about the place
A stretch of events in a city of about nine thousand people is not an attraction, and Old Glory Days does not pretend to be one. Nobody drives across the county for it. What it does is gather the residential side of Riverdale into one park on one morning, which matters more here than it would elsewhere, because this is a city built around a retail corridor with nearly as many jobs as residents. The day is the one occasion a year when the neighborhood city, rather than the working one, is visible to itself in one place.
That is the useful thing to weigh when you are deciding on an address. People ask it in different words, but the question underneath is whether a small city wrapped around a busy road still functions as a community. Riverdale's answer is a modest and specific one: a celebration it organises itself, mostly free, anchored on the Fourth of July, that begins with a cannon before dawn and ends with fireworks after dark, in the city's own park.
What a household should do with that is simple. Bookmark the city's own events page and look at it in the spring, because that is when the program and the parade applications land. Do not plan around a date someone else published. And if the parade matters to you, the route is on that same page each year. The wider regional calendar, from the street festivals in Ogden to the ski season above the valley, is a separate subject and it sits on the region hub.
A city that opens the Fourth of July with a cannon before dawn and sends its residents to the next town for the swim has told you almost everything about its size in a single schedule.
Scott Buehler
Moving Utah About Scott
Keep reading
Five more pages on Riverdale, and the question each one settles
The river
The Weber River in Riverdale
A pump track at the trailhead, a rule the city enforces, and a seam it hands north.
Read the guideThe road
Riverdale Road and the jobs
The busiest retail road in northern Utah, and a city with nearly as many jobs as residents.
Read the guideThe parks
The parks and the Community Center
Three parks, a splash pad on a drought schedule, and the building the recreation year runs out of.
Read the guideThe crossroads
The crossroads and the base edge
Two interstates in four and a half square miles, and a museum two bodies disagree on.
Read the guideMoving here
Moving to Riverdale
Three population figures, one school, no library branch, and a city that shares its amenities.
Read the guideThe whole set
Riverdale, in full
About nine thousand residents, one river reach and two interstates on four and a half square miles.
Open the companionQuick answers
Old Glory Days, answered
Old Glory Days. Riverdale City runs it itself, on its own special events page, and there is no outside festival committee, foundation or chamber behind it, so the city is the one place to ask about anything on the program. The celebration centers on the Fourth of July, with a couple of evening events in the days just before it.
It is built around the Fourth of July, so it lands on July 4 with a couple of lead-in evening events in the days before. Because the Fourth falls on a different day of the week each year, the exact spread of days shifts, and the city posts the year's full schedule on its events page in the spring, when parade applications open. Check that page for the current dates rather than any date passed around elsewhere.
The day starts before dawn with a cannon blast, followed by a sunrise service, a fun run and a fundraiser breakfast, then a mid-morning parade that finishes at Riverdale Park, vendor booths, a car show and entertainment through the day, and fireworks after dark. Most of it is centerd on Riverdale Park at 4300 S. Parker Drive.
The celebration is free to attend, including the cannon blast, the sunrise service, the parade and the fireworks. A few of the participation events, such as the fun run, the children's race, the pickleball tournaments and the fundraiser breakfast, charge a small entry fee. Those fees change from year to year, so confirm the current ones with the city when you sign up.
The parade steps off mid-morning on the Fourth and finishes at Riverdale Park. The city sets the exact route each year and publishes it on its events page in the spring, when parade applications open, so check there for the current year's streets and start point.
Because Riverdale has no municipal swimming pool of its own. The city rents the Roy Aquatic Center in neighboring Roy for a resident swim night, free to Riverdale residents with proof of residency. The arrangement is a standing one written into the city budget, and Riverdale runs a summer swim-night series at the same pool from June through August.
Beyond Old Glory Days, the city keeps a short calendar: an Easter egg hunt on the Saturday before Easter, a Halloween party in October, and the summer swim nights from June through August. The more regular calendar is the recreation program, with youth sport, open play basketball and pickleball, an after school club and group fitness out of the Community Center on Parker Drive.
Riverdale does not run those itself; they are the kind of thing you reach in a neighboring city. It is a small city that shares several amenities with its neighbors: there is no municipal pool, no library branch and no dog park inside Riverdale, and each of those sits a short drive away in Roy or on Adams Avenue. For a household weighing an address, that shared arrangement is worth knowing in advance.
It is a city celebration for a place of about nine thousand people, not a regional attraction, and it does not pretend to be one. What it does is put the residential side of a city wrapped around a busy retail road into one park for one day. For a household deciding whether Riverdale still gathers as a neighborhood, that one Saturday, and the cannon that opens it before dawn, is the honest answer.
One long day in July and a short calendar the rest of the year
A city's calendar is a small thing to weigh in a move, and it answers a question people ask in other words: whether a place built around a retail road still gathers anywhere. Riverdale's answer is a celebration it organises itself, mostly free, anchored on the Fourth of July, that opens with a cannon before dawn and closes with fireworks after dark in the city's own park. When you are ready to look at homes here, tell me what you are weighing and I will connect you with a Weber and Morgan partner agent who lives with this calendar, and stay on for the financing side.
Or call Scott: (435) 357-4345or send Scott a message
Keep going
Continue your Riverdale research
Eight more doors into Riverdale, chosen for what this page covers.
Questions about Riverdale?
Call Scott, send a message, or find out what your Riverdale home is worth. No pressure, no obligation.
Referral Disclosure: For moves outside Southern Utah, I can connect you with trusted local agents. If you choose to work with one, their brokerage pays my brokerage (Real Broker, LLC) a referral fee from their commission. This costs you nothing extra, and you are never obligated to use my referral.