Fireworks shows are a go in Lacey and Tumwater this year
After the strange and all-but-silent summer of 2020, Thurston County’s Independence Day fireworks shows are back with a bang.
The cities of Lacey and Tumwater are ready to light the skies and make some noise of July 3 and 4, respectively.
Jeannette Sieler of Lacey’s Parks and Recreation Department titled an email about the fireworks — and the city’s plans for park performances — “Summer happening!”
Of course, the celebrations will look different than they did in the before times. Neither city is having a festival with its fireworks.
“Unlike ‘normal’ years, we will not be doing a festival as that event typically draws in excess of 20,000 people to Tumwater Valley,” said Chuck Denney, director of Tumwater’s Parks & Recreation Department. “Due to COVID concerns and the fact that we don’t know what the regulations will be on July 4, we’ll celebrate with a fireworks show but won’t be promoting large public gatherings.”
Tumwater’s Thunder Valley Fireworks will be launched from the driving range of the Tumwater Valley Golf Course, 611 Tumwater Valley Drive SE, but the course will be closed. There’s a good view from surrounding neighborhoods and from Pioneer Park, 5801 Henderson Blvd. SE, Denney told The Olympian.
Lacey’s “Drive Up and Watch” Fireworks Spectacular will be launched not at Rainier Vista Park but at Chinook Middle School, 4301 Sixth Ave. NE.
Prime viewing locations include the middle school; North Thurston High School, 600 Sleater-Kinney Road NE; and Envision Career Academy, 411 College St. NE. There also will be a good view from many of the parking lots along Martin Way, Sieler told The Olympian.
The new location was chosen in an attempt to maximize the viewing opportunities for the show, which will happen 210 feet in the air.
“Lacey is ‘Tree City USA,’ ” Sieler said, “and trees block the view. We took a drone and went up the height of the fireworks so we could determine the best viewing spots, and we’ve created a map to show people where the best views are.”
The city also will be streaming the show on Facebook.
Tumwater’s annual — except, of course, for 2020 — Fourth of July parade has been reinvented as “Red, White & Blue Drive-Thru,” a reverse parade in which floats remain still and spectators watch from their moving vehicles.
Both cities are encouraging people to watch the fireworks in small groups to reduce the possible spread of COVID-19, and for now, Thurston County is still under a mask mandate. And both the drive-through parade and Lacey’s Music in the Park events require advance registration.
Such precautions might ultimately prove unnecessary: Gov. Jay Inslee announced in May that the state would reopen June 30 and possibly earlier if at least 70 percent of Washingtonians ages 16 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
As for Lakefair fireworks, stay tuned. They are listed on the Lakefair website, which says they’ll happen July 18, but the site also states that all plans are — you guessed it — subject to change.
This story was originally published June 1, 2021 at 11:26 AM.