July 4th 2024 Fireworks, Events Around New Brunswick

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — Independence Day is fast approaching so it's time to find out where you can celebrate in and around New Brunswick and Middlesex County, NJ. 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 New Brunswick and the surrounding areas.

July 4 Festivities For 2024:

Woodbridge fireworks on July 3: Woodbridge Township's 2024 Independence Day fireworks will be on July 3 (with a rain date of July 5).

The fireworks will be at Alvin P. Williams Park in Woodbridge. Gates open at 4 p.m. Live music, games, vendors, food trucks and more. Bring your own lawn chairs and blankets.

Edison fireworks on July 4: Thu, Jul 4, 2024 at 3:00 PM Papaianni Park, 100 Municipal Blvd, Edison, NJ, 08817

Mayor Sam Joshi, Edison Council and Recreation Department present the 4th of July Celebration beginning at 3 p.m. and ending at 10 p.m. Fireworks will begin at 9:30 p.m. There willbe kids zone, food, music and vendors. Performing musicians are Big Hix, 80's Revolution Band, The Benjamins. Bring your own lawn chairs and blankets.

Middlesex County Independence Day Re-Enactment at East Jersey Old Town Village in Piscataway on July 4:

Get ready to witness 'A Revolutionary Celebration', and watch history come alive right before your eyes as George Washington and the Continental Army reenact the celebration of the second anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1778, with cannon fire and a musket salute.

Join General George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Baron von Steuben for this annual celebration featuring a reenactment of the fue de joie (fire of joy) that took place on July 4th, 1778. Bring a blanket or a chair and enjoy a concert of patriotic themed music performed by the Libby Prison Minstrels and Mark Heter Band.

Visitors can also mix and mingle with historical interpreters, explore historic buildings, enjoy patriotic music by the Mark Heter Band, see a 19th Century printing press in action, enjoy children’s crafts, stone carving, and much more. This free event is open to the public.

WHEN: Thursday, July 4, 11 am–5:15 pm
WHERE: East Jersey Old Town Village
1050 River Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854

WHO: East Jersey Old Town Village and the Cornelius Low House are free and open to the public year-round, Wednesday through Sunday with living history interpreters onsite April through October and a packed schedule of special events.

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.