Long Beach will stage three simultaneous fireworks shows along the coast at 9 p.m. on July 4, with launches from Granada Beach, Junipero Beach and the Queen Mary. The display spreads across multiple viewing areas, giving holiday crowds several places to watch but no single best seat from the information released so far.
People planning a Fourth of July night in Long Beach are looking at a full schedule before the fireworks begin. The Grunion Gazette Calendar covers the week of July 2-8, and July 4 already includes the 22nd annual Great American Kids’ Bike Parade/Costume Contest at 10 a.m., a 4th of July BBQ at the Aquarium of the Pacific from noon to 2 p.m., the 4th of July on the Queen Mary from 3-10 p.m., the Long Beach Coast Game and Drone Show at 6:35 p.m. at Blair Field, and Picnics and Pops Concert from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Larry Curtis Concert Park at Marine Stadium.
The fireworks are being framed as a coastwide event, but the viewing list does not say which spots line up best with each launch site. The bluff, Lion’s Lighthouse, Belmont Pier, Shoreline Village and the beaches are all named as places to watch, yet that still leaves some uncertainty about where crowds will thicken fastest and where sightlines will be strongest when the show starts.
What is clear is that Long Beach has built its holiday night around the same 9 p.m. start. The next fixed moment on the calendar is the fireworks itself, and for anyone choosing among the coast, the rest of the evening is now a question of getting to the right place before the first burst goes up.
