In addition to the parades and vendors in Carnation for the Fourth of July festivities, various sports, games, and events will be held at Tolt-MacDonald park including Knockerball, a first for the event.

Knockerball is a game in which players get into big, inflatable balls and use them to roll, flip and jump into other players during a game of soccer.

Kim Lisk, Carnation Fourth of July committee chairperson, explained that there will be two knockerball areas at the park, divided by age group so that older players are not bumping around younger children too aggressively.

“We are going to have an older area so kids don’t get knocked out by older teenagers,” Lisk said. “The far end of the soccer field will be the play area for the older people and over on the baseball field is where the younger kids will go.”

Knockerball will be held from 1 to 8 p.m. and is hosted by Duvall-based business TJ Sports. A waiver form is required to register and can be found on http://tjsportsnw.com/waiver-form.

Other games, like Lasertag and dodgeball will be at the park as well and are free to play. Lasertag will run from 2 to 4 p.m. and dodgeball will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. around the back side of the red barn at the park.

Lisk said bringing games and sports to the park, alongside musical performances and a beer garden, was a way to bring every age demographic together at the park for the celebrations.

“Our motivation was to get people who have late elementary, fourth and fifth graders, middle school, high school students. To keep people around and festivities for the day,” Lisk said. “With the beer garden we’ve tapped into the 21 and older, it’s another way we can attract that age group.”

Lisk also said that the evening music is dedicated to Brian Pattinson, the committee’s sound and light manager, who passed away this February.

“He was our sound and light guy and passed away in February unexpectedly,” Lisk said. “We are dedicating the evening entertainment to him.”