Locals and visitors celebrate Fourth of July with free Philly fun

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- What better place to celebrate the fourth of July than the birthplace of America? In the weekend leading up to the holiday, Philadelphia is offering lots of free fun.

For a lot of locals and visitors, that fun starts on the steps of Philadelphia Museum of Art, made iconic by the Rocky movie franchise.

"We have friends in town from Portland, Oregon, and they wanted to do the Rocky steps," said Megan Wachlan of Fairmount Park.

The so-called Rocky Steps are a must-do any weekend, but especially Fourth of July Weekend, with some of the racers running up the steps in red, white and blue. But racing isn't the only thing the museum offered on Sunday, it gave some visitors the chance to come in for free. The museum was one of 35 cultural institutions that offered free or "pay as you wish" admission to celebrate the holiday weekend.

"I just feel that the culture gets really represented at the museum," said Darsh Singhvi of Chadds Ford as he visited the Museum of Art with his family.

Warner Williams also visited the museum to take advantage of the free admission.

"We figured we'd check this museum out because it's the museum to go to," he said.

Chris Britain recently moved to Philadelphia, just in time to celebrate the Fourth of July in America's birthplace.

"It's really good to be on the East Coast where there's a lot of history we came here from Texas so pretty cool to see all the natural stuff here," he said.

That history is a draw for people across the country like a mother and son who came from Arizona and California.

"It's beautiful, everything, the buildings, the structures. The weather," said Carmen Ramos of Yuma, Arizona.

We also met a father and son who came from Poland.

"It's a very nice place," said Przemek Wojnicz, as he got ready to race up the Museum of Art steps.

Visitors came to Philadelphia to see some of America's most iconic sights including the Liberty Bell.

"It was awesome," said Peter Failla III as he visited with his parents and brother from Denver, Colorado.

The kids were also looking forward to fireworks for the Fourth of July weekend. The fireworks will top off the weekend of festivities on Tuesday night at 9:45pm along the Ben Franklin Parkway.