Campbell's Franco-American in the Freedom Festival Parade. 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.