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Despite wet roads and cloudy skies, Kansas City residents are ready to celebrate the Fourth of July as the country marks America's 250th birthday.
Christian Jones, president of Pat Riot Fireworks in Kansas City, Kansas, said a little rain has never hurt business — and this year is no exception.
"Kansas City is ready to party," Jones said.
Jones has run the fireworks business for more than 20 years and said he has seen worse weather than this.
"I've had this for 20 plus years, and we've had worse rain than this and people still come out and buy product," Jones said. "I would prefer it not to rain, but I'm not worried. People are going to party. We've got a ton of repeat customers — a ton of people have been coming here for years, and they love the Fourth of July more than they're afraid of rain."
The Fourth of July is already the busiest day of the season for Pat Riot Fireworks, but Jones said this year carries extra reasons to celebrate.
"Especially this year with the 250th anniversary, it's on a Saturday, the World Cup's in town," Jones said. "If you're going to be in a business and bring people joy, fireworks is a really great one for that."
Customers who braved the dreary conditions said the rain isn't changing their plans. Kaleigh, a customer at the tent, said the holiday tradition runs too deep to skip.
"Despite the rain, it's Fourth of July and it's always been a tradition to come to this firework stand and just get little stuff and celebrate today," Kaleigh said.
Alex and Jimena, also shopping at the tent, said the holiday is something they look forward to every year.
"We celebrate every year, we look forward every year to it," they said. "We just like celebrating the Fourth of July, and the weather said it's going to stop raining in a little bit, so we're still going to celebrate."
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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