Mankato's July 4th fireworks are back

Mark Fischenich, The Free Press, Mankato, Minn.
·2 min read

Jun. 15—MANKATO — It's official — the Veterans Memorial Bridge will be closed to traffic on the evening of Independence Day. Riverfront Park will be open. And the pyrotechnics will be soaring, bursting and booming.

"We are going to have fireworks on the 4th of July," Mankato City Manager Susan Arntz reported to the Mankato City Council Monday night. "It has not been without its own challenge."

Traditional Independence Day festivities were canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Arntz said earlier this spring she was hopeful of resurrecting at least the fireworks when pandemic restrictions on public gatherings started to fall.

The effort nearly fizzled, however, due to another widespread problem — a worker shortage. Mankato's fireworks contractor was doubtful that he would be able to find the staffing to put on this year's show.

"We were able to work it out," Arntz said.

Part of the solution was a $3,000 premium the city agreed to pay on top of the traditional $15,000 budgeted for pyrotechnics.

While the peonies and willows and horsetails and rings will be drawing oohs and aahs like usual, Mankato won't be offering its traditional Red, Hot, Boom! event in 2021.

"No concessions. No music," Arntz said. "Just fireworks."

With the event potentially becoming viable only in early May, when vaccinations were climbing and crowd restrictions were dropping by the wayside, there just wasn't time to book the musicians and the city staff required for the full-scale red-white-and-blue celebration.

But Riverfront Park will be open to people who want an up-close view of the fireworks, which are launched just to the park's north. And vehicles will be detoured from the Vets Bridge so fireworks fans can score a premium viewing spot on the bridge deck.

"I'm sure people will be excited," Mayor Najwa Massad said. "... That's really good to hear."

Though the customary pre-fireworks concert, typically featuring City Mouse and the Mankato Symphony Orchestra at the Vetter Stone Amphitheater, will be absent, the city is working with local radio stations to simulcast patriotic tunes synced to the pyrotechnics.