The City of Greenbelt will celebrate Independence Day with fireworks over Greenbelt Lake on Thursday, July 4, as it did for the City’s first such celebration.
This July 4, Greenbelters can enjoy crafts from 4 to 6 p.m. at Buddy Attick Park. From 5:30 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. a drum circle will take place at the bandstand, followed by a concert band performance at 7:30 p.m. and fireworks at dusk over the Lake (about 9 p.m.).
The Greenbelt Baptist Church is also hosting a Fourth of July picnic across the street from Buddy Attick Park at 4 p.m. Attendees to the admission-free picnic can enjoy food, bounce houses for children, snow cones and water.
Community members can host picnics, enjoy a lakeside walk and the playground.
Last year the crowd was larger than expected due to the cancellation of the neighboring College Park fireworks. This year College Park is again not planning any fireworks display. In Greenbelt, large crowds in similar numbers to previous years are expected. It is preferable for residents to walk to the celebration, but parking is available in the parking lot at Buddy Attick Park and along Crescent Road. Drivers should observe all parking signs in place.
Following the fireworks, traffic from the Buddy Attick Park area will be permitted only in one direction, with both lanes leading vehicles to Kenilworth Avenue. For an estimated 30 to 45 minutes, Greenbelt police will direct traffic at the Crescent-Kenilworth intersection. Traffic from Kenilworth Avenue will not be permitted to turn onto Crescent Road until most cars have left the area after the fireworks show.
Greenbelt police officers will be on foot throughout the park. Outside food and non-alcoholic beverages are permitted. Fireworks – such as firecrackers, snakes, sparklers and bottle rockets – are prohibited by law.
First Celebration
As reported by the Greenbelt Cooperator (the News Review’s original name), Greenbelt held its first Fourth of July celebration in 1938, less than one year after the town was founded.
The initial ceremony was an all-day affair. A bicycle parade at Center School (now the Community Center) kickstarted the event at 10 a.m., followed by tricycle races for younger children. The party then moved to Greenbelt Lake for the remainder of the day. The afternoon was filled with games, demonstrations and music. A water obstacle course that was hailed as “better than a circus” (see the June 29, 1938, Cooperator at greenbeltnewsreview.com/archives/) transitioned into sack and three-legged races. A pie-eating contest for kids led into multiple tug-of-war battles against teams from specific blocks of Greenbelt.
Residents enjoyed ice cream and soft drinks and wore commemorative buttons to remember the joyous occasion. Every resident learned the new Greenbelt song before a huge community fireworks display over the lake concluded the night.
The city has celebrated the national holiday similarly through the years, frequently with parades and sporting events, with the night ending in fireworks over Greenbelt Lake most years, though sometimes at Braden Field. There was no July 4 fireworks display in Greenbelt from 1942 to ᾽45, during World War II (fireworks resumed over the lake in 1946), nor in 2020, during the height of the Covid pandemic.
Randy Chow and Matthew Neus are students at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism interning with the Greenbelt News Review.