Cloudy with a chance of sparklers: Are there any July 4th fireworks in NH this year?

With normal life sort of coming into view, I thought 4th of July fireworks might be a distinct possibility somewhere in the state. Not really, I 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 30,” Flammia says, “but then we moved them to July 31 due to COVID.”

In fact, there were only three places in New Hampshire I could find with firework shows still planned. The Fisher Cats are selling tickets to socially distanced in-stadium fireworks displays on July 2, 3 and 4 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.

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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.

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