D.C.'s Freedom 250 fireworks show start time keeps getting later
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Fireworks after the June 15 UFC fight on the White House lawn. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
With days to go until D.C.'s amped-up July 4 fireworks show, key details — including a shift to a later start time — remain unclear.
Why it matters: With ground stops and inauguration-level security, D.C. is bracing for an unusually disruptive Fourth of July this year.
- And the big show's organizer, President Trump-allied Freedom 250, is weathering backlash for other semiquincentennial celebrations in D.C. that some have criticized as appearing hastily put together.
State of play: At a public safety briefing on Monday, Mayor Muriel Bowser said that the fireworks "won't begin until 11pm," lasting approximately 45 minutes.
- That's later than the 10:30pm start time advertised last week by Freedom 250.
- Mayoral spokesperson Susana Castillo told Axios that the Secret Service had informed the city it would be 11pm. (The Secret Service didn't respond to an email Monday evening.)
- The Secret Service said during Monday's press conference that Cabinet secretaries and Congress members will be on the Mall. Representatives for Freedom 250, which Bowser said were not invited to the briefing, previously said President Trump would speak.
- Freedom 250 did not answer Axios' questions about the start time and programming on the record.
Zoom out: July 4 is being treated as a National Special Security Event for the first time in D.C. history, a flood-the-zone public safety posture taken during presidential inaugurations.
- There'll be plenty of road closures, detours and bus delays. "You'll see more concrete, more blocking vehicles, fencing, things that you don't see typically during a July Fourth," said interim D.C. police chief Jeffery Carroll.
- The public will need to submit to a "TSA-style magnetometer screening" to enter the Mall, said Tara McLeese of the Secret Service, with only a small clear bag or purse permitted.
- But she added "there will be no ID check," contradicting previous guidance from Freedom 250.
In addition to Mall festivities, rolling military flyovers will begin in the afternoon.
- Flights will be grounded at Reagan National Airport for 15 hours in the lead-up: from 10am to 1pm on July 3rd and from noon to midnight on July 4.
- "These times are subject to change," the FAA added in its announcement.
Another fireworks show will also take place at Anacostia Park, a new event this year.
- Fireworks will be fired off near the Reflecting Pool and several points on the Potomac River, closing river access from the Key Bridge to south of the 14th Street Bridge. Memorial Bridge will also be off limits to pedestrians.
- With 850,000 fireworks, organizers plan to break a world record.
The bottom line: Law enforcement officials said they are not tracking any credible threats at this time.