The skies over Gulf Shores will not feature rockets’ red glare or bombs bursting in air this Fourth of July. 

The City of Gulf Shores announced their decision to cancel the 2020 Fourth of July fireworks due to safety concerns on June 3.

The statement from the city read:

“After careful consideration of the potential health risks related to COVID-19, the City of Gulf Shores has canceled the 2020 Fourth of July fireworks.

This difficult decision was made in accordance with the current Safer at Home Health Order issued by Governor Kay Ivey and after consulting with both local and state Fire Marshals.

The city still plans to celebrate this historic day by flying American flags and lighting up the City in red, white and blue to honor our Nation’s birthday. 

As a reminder, discharging fireworks within the corporate limits of the City of Gulf Shores is prohibited without a state fireworks permit. Please contact the Gulf Shores Fire Marshal at 251-269-7996 for more information on fireworks permits. 

The City of Gulf Shores will continue to provide public updates at www.gulfshoresal.gov and through social media. The public is encouraged to sign up to receive update notifications by visiting our website and clicking the “Notify Me” button.”

In a video message posted to the City of Gulf Shores Facebook page, June 4, Mayor Robert Craft gave further details on why the decision was made.

“I know that this decision has disappointed a lot of people including me and all of us here at the city. I wanted to make sure you understood what we were facing and why we had to do this. The Safer at Home measure by the governor and the State Health Officer requires us to sign a document if we have a special event on the beach that brings a lot of additional people to town for that event. That we will guarantee we can keep them safe. Given the effect of the crowds that we would expect and it being dark, social distancing on the beach will be impossible to monitor. Getting in and out, just like if you were leaving a stadium, you are funneled together trying to get off the beach and the various different beach accesses we have we did not feel comfortable we could keep everyone safe.” 

“So, the decision was a safety decision and safety only. This is not a financial impact of significance to the city. It is about public safety. It’s about us guaranteeing to the governor that we can keep the people safe and we can monitor the social distancing and protect the crowds which we can’t do is the reason we had to take this action. We are going to hold that all in abeyance with the money. We are going to keep it in the budget and hopefully, the situation will occur that maybe later in the year we can have another special event and do fireworks cause we all enjoy them so much. Thank you for your patience. We appreciate your safety and understanding of our concerns for your safety,” Craft said.