Joliet 2023 July 4 fireworks returning to Memorial Stadium

The Fourth of July fireworks show in Joliet is coming back to Memorial Stadium this year.

The return to the traditional venue for the annual fireworks show after a two-year absence was announced at the Joliet City Council meeting on Tuesday.

Mayor Terry D’Arcy announced the return of the fireworks at the end of the meeting, although Memorial Stadium actually is owned and operated by the Joliet Park District.

“For over 75 years, the fireworks were at Memorial Stadium,” D’Arcy said.

He referred to the two-year interruption of the tradition as “a hiccup.”

“They (the park district) have agreed to allow us to bring it back to Memorial Stadium this year,” the mayor said.

The annual fireworks show had been held at Memorial Stadium since some point after World War II. But it was moved to Joliet Junior College in 2021 after new field turf was installed in the softball fields behind the stadium, and Joliet Park District officials became concerned about turf damage from fireworks.

The Independence Day fireworks show is one of two held in Joliet each year.

Billie Limacher Bicentennial Park hosts a July 3 fireworks show.

But the Fourth of July show is the longer tradition.

The Memorial Stadium show typically drew thousands of people, only a fraction of which went to the stadium.

People would line Jefferson Street, picnic on the Inwood Golf Course grounds, and take other vantage points to watch the fireworks.

While the stadium was the central viewing area for the show, the fireworks actually were staged south of the stadium in the area of the softball fields. Park officials in 2020 said they were concerned that fallout from the fireworks could damage the newly installed turf.

The artificial turf replaced grass as the park district updated the fields.

The city has been looking for a permanent place to stage the Fourth of July shown even though JJC was available for the past two years..

JJC officials were not inclined to make the main campus on Houbolt Road a permanent location for the fireworks show. City officials were looking for a new location in 2022 before bringing the event back to JJC for a second year.