It’s been a few years since Independence Day celebrations have been relatively normal, but things will look more familiar this year.
To cap off this year’s July Fourth festivities on the National Mall, the National Park Service is putting on a full fireworks celebration.
“It’s one of these situations where everything old is new again,” said Mike Litterst, a park service spokesperson.
“We had experimented for the last few years with some alternate locations including West Potomac Park, and this year we’re going back to the traditional location of firing them off from both sides of the Reflecting Pool,” he said.
If you’re looking to enjoy this year’s fireworks show in person, keep in mind some areas will be blocked off.
“The area north of the Reflecting Pool and Constitution Gardens, the memorial to the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence — that area is closed this year, because it’s within the fallout zone,” Litterst said.
“But because we’re not shooting fireworks off from West Potomac Park, that entire area will be open. So the area between the Jefferson Memorial past the FDR Memorial to the Lincoln Memorial center is all open this year where it was closed for the last couple of years.”
For those looking for the best place to see the show, there’s good news.
“There’s really not a bad place to watch from the Mall. If you’re by the Lincoln Memorial, you get a great view of the fireworks with the Washington Monument and the Capitol in the background,” Litterst said.
“If you’re on the other end, if you’re at the Capitol, you get just as great a view of the fireworks with the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial in the background. There’s plenty of room on the Mall.”
He also said you shouldn’t worry much about the Mall getting too packed with spectators.
“We’ve got people that show up at 10 o’clock in the morning to choose their favorite spot. We got people coming out of Metro (at) quarter to nine and having no trouble finding a spot either.”
The July 4th fireworks show starts at 9:09 p.m. and will run for 17 1/2 minutes.
