July 4th 2024 Fireworks, Events Around Columbia

COLUMBIA, MD — Independence Day is fast approaching so it's time to find out where you can celebrate in and around Columbia and across Howard County. Area events include fireworks, festivals and other Fourth of July fun.

To help you fit it all in on your 4th of July calendar, Patch has put together a guide to what’s going on in Columbia and the surrounding areas.

July 4 Festivities For 2024

What: 4th of July annual fireworks celebration for Howard County includes fireworks, live music and on-site food vendors.
Where: Lakefront at Columbia
When: July 4

What: Laurel 2024 4th of July Celebration with a parade, car show, family fun games, live music, flag raising ceremony and fireworks.
Where: Around Laurel
When: July 6

What: US Navy Concert Band's free, family-friendly concert.
Where: Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods
When: July 4

Nowadays, Americans celebrate the birth of a new nation with fireworks, parades, concerts and family gatherings and barbecues. Celebrations, though, predate by centuries the designation of Independence Day as a federal holiday, which didn’t happen until 1941.

During the pivotal summer of 1776, the pre-Revolutionary celebrations honoring King George III’s birthday were replaced with mock funerals as a symbolic break from the crown.

It was an exciting time in Philadelphia — the Continental Congress voted to break from the crown and, two days later on July 4, the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the original 13 colonies —New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland. Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia — to adopt the Declaration of Independence.

The first annual commemoration of the nation’s independence was in Philadelphia on July 4, 1777, while the Revolutionary War was ongoing. Fireworks have been part of Fourth of July festivities since the first celebration in Philadelphia.