People watch fireworks light up the sky over New York City on July 4, 2013 in Weehawken, New Jersey. July 4th is a national holiday with the nation celebrating its 238th birthday. (Photo by Kena Betancur/Getty Images)
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — The Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks show is moving to the East River this year, but you’ll still be able to catch a big display over the Hudson River.
Jersey City plans to celebrate Independence Day with a festival and free concert at Liberty State Park followed by fireworks, with the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop, CBS 2 reported.
Jersey City used to put on a fireworks show, but stopped when Macy’s moved its display to the Hudson River in 2009 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s voyage up the river. The Macy’s fireworks will be set off from the Brooklyn Bridge and barges on the East River this summer.
“When New York City decided to move it to the East River, it opened up a window of opportunity,” Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop told WCBS 880’s Levon Putney. “Our job is to capitalize on that and that’s what we’re doing.”
The mayor said the fireworks display will be the largest in New Jersey and he expects more than 100,000 people to be in attendance.
“We’re reinstituting it and we’re doing it in style and we’re doing it big,” Fulop said. “This will be a far larger show than what we used to do.”
The event won’t cost taxpayers a dime thanks to the corporate sponsors, Putney reported.
Over the past 50 years, Macy’s has launched fireworks from the Hudson River 25 times and this year will mark the 25th time the show will be held over the East River, organizers said.
Macy’s plans to continue alternating rivers in the future, organizers said.
