This year will mark the 40th anniversary of the Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks and the pyrotechnics will light up the East River for the third consecutive year.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Macy’s said Friday that the show, which will begin at about 9:25 p.m. on the holiday, will be fired from two locations along the shorelines of Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn. The 25-minute show will feature more than 52,000 shells and effects that will be shot from four barges positioned in the East River between 23rd and 37th Streets and from one double-barge below the Brooklyn Bridge.
“With the fireworks lighting up the East River for the third year in a row, millions of New Yorkers will again be able to take part in Macy’s electrifying July Fourth display,” de Blasio said. “The fireworks will ignite the sky — and the local economy — from Queens to Brooklyn to Manhattan, as we celebrate the nation’s 240th birthday.”
Amy Kule, executive producer of Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks, said the show will feature Jennifer Holliday and a score performed by the U.S. Air Force Band. The show will be simulcast on 1010 WINS-AM in New York and televised nationally on NBC. It is seen by more than three million spectators in the New York area and millions nationwide.