July 4th Fireworks Are Back At Memorial Stadium: Mayor D'Arcy

JOLIET, IL — For the past two years, Joliet broke away from its long-standing tradition of having its annual fireworks show on July 4th — the most popular in the entire Will County area — at Memorial Stadium. Instead, the fireworks event was moved to a more off the beaten path location on the Joliet Junior College campus.

On Tuesday night, at the end of the Joliet City Council meeting, new Joliet Mayor Terry D'Arcy informed everyone that Joliet's 4th of July fireworks show will be brought back to Memorial Stadium, which is managed by the Joliet Park District.

During the final minutes of Tuesday's meeting that lasted 2 hours and 15 minutes, D'Arcy told everyone: "One more thing I'd like to say is, for over 75 years, the fireworks have been at the Joliet Memorial Stadium. There was a hiccup one year, a few years back, where they moved them because they were doing something with the baseball fields," D'Arcy announced Tuesday night. "And they've now agreed to allow us to bring those back to the Memorial Stadium for this year. So, I think it will be the 76th year that they're there. One small bit of news from me, and other than that, thank you all for your patience."

In January 2021, Joliet Patch broke the news reporting that the summer of 2021 would mark the first time that Joliet's annual 4th of July fireworks show will not be held at the Joliet Park District's Memorial Stadium property. Fireworks at Inwood are history because the park district is installing FieldTurf on all their softball fields behind the Memorial Stadium as part of a $1.4 million project.

For the summer of 2021, the park district did not want to take the risk that the embers from the July 4th fireworks would start their new softball fields on fire, then-interim city manager Jim Hock said at the time.