photo by: Shawn Valverde/Journal-World

Fireworks go off over the stage at the 2023 Independence day celebration at the Douglas County Fairgrounds on July 3, 2023.

The City of Lawrence’s Fourth of July festivities will look a little different this year.

While the city still plans to host its annual free Summerfest event at the Douglas County Fairgrounds in celebration of the holiday, an Independence Day staple will be markedly absent. That’s because instead of a fireworks display, the city is hosting a lighted drone show.

Members of the city’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board learned more about the change during the group’s monthly meeting earlier this week from Porter Arneill, assistant Parks and Recreation director for arts and culture.

Arneill only spoke briefly about the move away from the fireworks display at Monday’s board meeting, but he did answer a few additional questions from the Journal-World Wednesday afternoon.

At Monday’s meeting, Arneill told board members the reason behind the adjustment was “a little problem” with last year’s fireworks show. Arneill told the Journal-World that was in reference to the unintended impact of the fireworks show on the animals at the nearby Lawrence Humane Society, which is located just across the street from the fairgrounds.

“I worked closely with them during last year’s event to minimize the impact and, understanding the circumstances, we definitely wanted to seek an alternative this year,” Arneill said. “And, with our city’s commitment to sustainability, we’re also working to adapt accordingly to help ensure animals and people in our community are not negatively impacted.”

The less noisy festivities are slated for Wednesday, July 3, at the fairgrounds, 2120 Harper St. The drone show will be the finale of the event at around 9:45 p.m. that evening, but there are additional items on the schedule that start earlier in the afternoon.

The first is a crafts festival beginning at 3 p.m. An hour later at 4 p.m., live music, food trucks, beer sales and an activities area for kids will all begin and continue through the evening.

“The cost is comparable to fireworks,” Arneill said. “We booked a 200 drone show so this won’t be at the scale of shows we’ve seen on (television) for international new year’s celebrations, but it will be fun, honor Independence Day and we’re working to add local reference.”

Further details about the event will be added via the city’s website and social media as they become available. More information about Summerfest is available by contacting the Parks and Recreation administrative office at parksrec@lawrenceks.org.

photo by: City of Lawrence

This map shows the layout for events as part of the City of Lawrence’s Summerfest event slated for Wednesday, July 3, 2024.