Four Freedoms monument on Evansville waterfront, with Thunder on the Ohio activities, Thunder was an unlimited hydroplane race presented during the Freedom Festival. It has not been presented since 2009. The Evansville Freedom Festival was an annual festival in Evansville, Indiana that celebrates the Fourth of July. What began in 1970 with only a handful of events has grown to include unlimited boat racing, airshows, food booths, dances, and music culminating with a fireworks show over the Evansville riverfront. In recent years the Freedom Festival has been renamed, struggled financially, been sponsored by other organizations, and at times cancelled. The monument is at 267 SE Riverside Dr. Evansville's most recognizable landmark, the Four Freedoms Monument, is a numerical testament to the United States' most treasured freedoms. Thirteen concentric steps, representing the original 13 colonies, lead to four columns, which are surrounded by 50 pedestals that each bear the name and seal of one state from the Union. The limestone columns, which were originally built in 1882 to adorn the entrance of the C and EI Railroad Depot in Evansville were salvaged in 1961 at the Depot's demolition and given a new purpose 15 years later. The Four Freedoms Monument was erected in 1976 in celebration of the U.S. Bicentennial. Four smooth-shafted, ionic columns act as 26-foot tall evocative reminders of the freedom of speech, freedom from oppression, freedom of religion and freedom from fear. Some also suggest the circular base on which these four columns sit symbolizes a fifth freedom, the freedom to peacefully assemble, which many groups do at this site regularly.