After months of  careful planning and multiple meetings with various stakeholders, the Schroon Lake Chamber of Commerce has announced the return of the July 4th Celebration for 2021.

The 66th festivities will look a lot different this year. The Chamber has opted to “deconstruct” the celebration. Rather than folks lining the streets, various crowd favorites will be available to visit at locations around town, said Chamber Director Sue Palisano.

The idea is for folks to be able to visit different brands bands and musicians at different times so some folks will be in one place and others elsewhere, thus spreading out crowds.

Sue said when organizers began planning the event months ago, the Chamber, Town officials -- with guidance from the County and the Department of Health -- believed this was the best plan. One big difference this year – Main Street will not be closed.

More from Sue:

“Once again, please see current information regarding THIS YEAR'S Fourth of July below. More details will be coming over the next several weeks, but here is the explanation for why the decision was made not to close Main Street and hold a traditional parade.

The Fourth of July Celebration in Schroon Lake takes months of planning that begins in March. At that time, there were still questions about crowd size restrictions (and we are still operating for the foreseeable future under some limits for outdoor gatherings). Working together and in consultation with both Essex County Board of Supervisors and Essex County Health, given the anticipated attendance both the Chamber and Town Boards agreed that holding a traditional parade - with crowds gathering on sidewalks along our fairly short parade route - was ill-advised, and a decision was made not to submit the required Rt. 9 road closure permits to the State DOT.

Instead, we chose to move forward with an alternative plan we were confident we'd be able to execute without the risk of having to cancel and that we expect will draw far fewer people to town than come for our regular parade. Multiple bands/performers will be playing at different times in different places over a two hour period, so some folks will be at one location while others are somewhere else, with people walking around instead of gathering in tight groups for several hours.

This is NOT a permanent situation, nor should the decision made be politicized. The Chamber and Town Board made a decision we felt was in the best interests of our community. Given what goes into making the entire day of activities on the Fourth happen, instead of making this negative we would hope folks would appreciate we're doing our best to hold a celebration”.

What are you most looking forward to this year? Let us know in comments.