Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

What’s The Deal With 4th of July Fireworks?

With social distancing measures in place, the Independence Day mainstay has been reimagined
14590207962_5a139cf3e6_o
Photo: Kevin Muncie for Flickr https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/

If the last month of explosions haven't been enough, we have good news -- Macy's 4th of July fireworks display is going ahead, albeit with some pretty significant changes.

To satisfy the city's social distancing requirements, as cases of COVID-19 skyrocket across the country, there will be no big public display this year in order to stop huge crowds gathering. 

Instead, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Macy's have worked together on 5-minute displays that have lit up secret locations at secret times each night since Monday. The mysterious shows will continue Thursday and Friday nights, and will culminate in a grand finale Saturday night.

The grand finale will be headlined by John Legend and will include prerecorded highlights from the displays throughout the week. It will be streamed live on NBC at 8 p.m. The mayor has said the finale, which is taking place atop the Empire State Building, will include "something very special" at the end.

Monday night's show took place off Long Island City, Tuesday's could be seen from lower Manhattan and north Staten Island and Wednesday's was held over Times Square in Midtown Manhattan.

Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Executive Producer Susan Tercero told ABC7 New York the idea behind the new format was to bring different elements of the show to different parts of New York City, ahead of the finale.

De Blasio said the past few month's had been some of the most difficult in the city's history, and the display was a way for New Yorkers to celebrate the holiday together, while they were still physically apart.




Comments