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Cloudy with a Chance of Sparklers: Are There Any July 4th Fireworks in N.H. This Year?

Sean Hurley
From a past fireworks show at Waterville Valley.

With normal life sort of coming into view, NHPR’s Sean Hurley thought 4th of July fireworks might be a distinct possibility somewhere in the state. Not really, he discovered.  

There won’t be fireworks displays in Concord or Merrimack or Nashua this 4th of July. Portsmouth Recreation Director Rus Wilson says even rescheduling wasn’t an option. “Yeah, we get close to 20,000 people in Portsmouth,” Wilson says, “so we're not going to go anywhere near that while this is going on.”

In Waterville Valley, Town Manager Mark Decoteau says he and his team tried to figure out some way their fireworks show over Corcoran Pond could go on. “Trying to control the number of cars that came into town,” Decoteau says, “having the drive-in movie approach where they could see the display and stay in their vehicles. But the bottom line was, none of them were really practical.”

Director of the Jackson Chamber of Commerce, Kathleen Flammia, says her town is crossing its fingers and simply postponing the celebration a few weeks. “So we did have them scheduled for June 30th,” Flammia says, “but then we moved them to July 31st due to COVID.”

In fact, there were only three places in New Hampshire I could find with firework shows still planned. The Fisher Catsare selling tickets to socially distanced in-stadium fireworks displays on July 2nd, 3rd and 4th in Manchester. The town of Bristol will host its annual light show at Newfound Lake and the Mount Washington Hotel will light up the sky for registered guests.

There may be others, but this looks like a very good year for sparklers and lightning bugs and the booms and crackles of store bought fireworks.

Sean Hurley lives in Thornton with his wife Lois and his son Sam. An award-winning playwright and radio journalist, his fictional “Atoms, Motion & the Void” podcast has aired nationally on NPR and Sirius & XM Satellite radio. When he isn't writing stories or performing on stage, he likes to run in the White Mountains. He can be reached at shurley@nhpr.org.
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