Route for Bel Air's 2015 Independence Day Parade

The Bel Air Fourth of July Parade will take a new direction in 2015.

The route will be the same, but the course has reversed its start and endpoints.

Saturday’s parade will begin at Idlewild Street at South Main Street at 6 p.m.

It will end at East Gordon Street at North Main Street.

Judges will be posted at the Harford County Government Administrative Offices during the event, which has the theme “An Olde-Fashioned Fourth of July.”

Organizers say the changes will improve the experience for spectators, who will no longer have to look into the sun.

In addition, the new route will facilitate viewing of the fireworks, which will go off at Rockfield Park at approximately 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 4.

“The ending point for decades was at South Main and Idlewild, but that tradition was based on the parade being followed by fireworks over the Bel Air High School/Middle School complex,” Parade Chairman Michael Blum said.

“Now that the fireworks have been for years fired off over Rockfield Park, we took a look at how we could stage the parade and give the community the best view of it, and this is our conclusion,” he added.

According to Blum, who has been chair of the parade since 1992, there have been approximately six to seven different parade routes due to construction, public safety and town needs.

The Bel Air Independence Day Parade will begin at 6 p.m. on Saturday, July 4, on South Main Street at Idlewild Street.

Map from the Bel Air Independence Day Committee.