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Some towns turn to lasers and drones instead of fireworks to celebrate Fourth of July

People watch a laser show during New Year's celebrations in Bucharest, Romania. Andreea Alexandru / AP

SUNAPEE — Fourth of July light displays will be a little different in several towns this summer.

Sunapee and Lebanon are using lights instead of pyrotechnics to celebrate Independence Day, and Claremont and Woodstock have switched the dates of their annual fireworks displays. The reasons for the changes range from the availability of fireworks companies to environmental concerns.

This Saturday at 9 p.m., Sunapee will host its first-ever drone show instead of traditional fireworks. Town Manager Shannon Martinez said the switch came about after a group of residents who are “more and more concerned about the health of our watershed,” approached town officials earlier this spring about the impact the annual fireworks show has on the health of Lake Sunapee.

According to a 2019 “Environmental Fact Sheet” put together by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, debris from fireworks can be “a potential source chemical contaminants to the waterbody.” Additionally, some fireworks have phosphorus and nitrogen compounds “that contribute to algal and plant growth in lakes.”

While town officials and residents understand that the impact a single fireworks show has on the lake could be minimal “the question is ‘what are the good decisions that we can make on the daily that make sure we’re protecting our water?’ ” Martinez said in a phone interview this week.

After a few more conversations, the Selectboard approved a pilot program for a drone show. It will cost around $16,000 to put on, which is a similar cost to fireworks shows, Martinez said. The Lake Sunapee Yacht Club is working with the town to put on the display, which is primarily funded by donations.

“It feels, looks and is going to be different so (...) maybe we just have to wait to see how it goes,” Martinez said. She emphasized that this year’s drone show is a pilot program and if the community ends up not liking it, town officials will reconsider their options for next year.

Lebanon will celebrate the Fourth of July with a laser light show this year — albeit for a different reason than Sunapee. For more than 30 years, Vermont-based Northstar Fireworks has done Lebanon’s annual Fourth of July fireworks display, said Paul Coats, director of Lebanon’s Recreation, Arts and Parks Department.

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Earlier this year, Northstar Fireworks told the city that the company was “not able to offer one to Lebanon despite our pleading and offer to do them on the third or the fifth or some other time around the fourth,” Coats said. The company instead will put on a fireworks display on Thursday, Aug. 22, as part of Lebanon’s Summer Celebration.

While Lebanon doesn’t spend the most money on fireworks, Coats said, “we’ve been a loyal customer for them and they’ve been loyal to us.”

Northstar Fireworks has seen an increase in business and has had to be more selective about which shows they can do on the Fourth of July, Tom Swenson, Northstar’s general manager and choreographer, said in a phone interview this week.

“We’re so busy being a Vermont company we had to make some choices about what shows we were going to take,” Swenson said, adding that they offered Lebanon other dates around the Fourth, but city officials took too long to respond and when they did the dates were filled up. The time needed to get employees properly certified played a role, but it wasn’t the sole reason they made the decision that they did.

The company also canceled Fourth of July shows in other New Hampshire towns. On the week of the Fourth of July, the minimum financial commitment for out-of-state shows is $15,000; most spend between $20,000 and $30,000. They will be producing around 60 fireworks shows on the Fourth of July alone.

“Right now we have a waiting list,” Swenson said. He encouraged smaller communities to join together to host a single fireworks display. “I think towns are going to have to get flexible.”

After learning that Northstar was unavailable, Lebanon staff began to explore other options for a light display on the Fourth. Staff contacted other companies, but were told they were unable to add shows for new clients on the Fourth.

“Celebrating the Fourth on the fourth is a special thing and expected,” Coats said, adding that this year the Thursday holiday coincides with the weekly Lebanon Farmers Market. They had also already scheduled other events that day, such as the annual Red, White & Blue 6.2 & 5K. “There’s things that are going on that we already had set up and we didn’t want to alter those things.”

In February, staff reached out to Dynamic FX, a visual effects company that has a location in Boston, and signed a $10,250 contract with it to provide a laser light show on the Fourth of July. That’s less than the $12,500 the city paid Northstar Fireworks for the Fourth show last year, Coats said.

“If people want to speculate that we are not doing it because we want to save a dollar, that’s not accurate,” he said in a phone interview this week, adding that the plan is to resume the traditional fireworks display in 2025. “We’re not trying to cancel the Fourth of July.”

Claremont, which also uses Northstar Fireworks, changed its fireworks display to Wednesday, July 3, after they learned the company was unavailable on the Fourth of July, said Justin Martin, the new director of the Claremont Parks & Recreation Department. The rain date for the event is Friday, July 5.

“A nice benefit to the City was it was at a reduced cost than what it would have been on the Fourth,” Martin said in a phone interview this week. This year’s show will cost $15,000; he did not have information about what the city spent last year.

The more staff thought about it, though, the more the change of date seemed to benefit the community at large. Many businesses give their employees the Fourth of July off so having a late-night celebration the night before the holiday, Martin said, “sounded like it was positive in terms of change.”

The new date also makes it “a little easier for us to find volunteers to help run the event as well,” Martin added. Depending on how hosting the event on July 3 goes, the city could consider doing the same thing next year.

Woodstock also has moved its Fourth of July celebration from the fourth to the fifth.

The town had been waiting to book the fireworks display — which takes place at Woodstock Union High School — until after the bond vote for a new school, Woodstock Municipal Manager Eric Duffy said in a phone interview last month. If the March bond vote had passed, construction would be underway, and they would be unable to use the school grounds.

In late March, after the bond vote failed, town officials reached out to fireworks companies and learned they were booked up for the Fourth of July, but not the fifth.

“We figured it was the second best option we could do for the residents,” Duffy said.

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Sunapee drone show kicks off july 4 festivities.

Hundreds of drones used to display festive lights, rather than traditional fireworks.

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The town of Sunapee is getting creative to kick off the Fourth of July holiday this year. Instead of fireworks, they're lighting up the sky over the lake with drones.

Jim Christopherson of Skyworks said, "I love bringing new drone shows to communities that have never had them. I love coming in and doing a really good show for people who are like we should've done this, we should've done that, really pushing back."

The 10-minute light show featuring 300 drones was pre-empted by months of preparation from the pilots at Skyworks, town administrators and the show's organizers.

"We do the design work. And then we get into the creative, and then we get into the logistics, and there's multiple meetings and zoom calls where you're getting approvals." Christopherson said.

The drone show also has multiple benefits. The drones are an eco-friendly, safer and quieter alternative to fireworks. There's also less chance of debris falling into the lake water or harming the animals. Skyworks says it doesn't give off the chemicals like a typical fireworks show and leaves no trash.

The shift from fireworks to drones has gotten some pushback from residents, but overall positive.

Christopherson said, "Folks have been wonderful. They've been wonderful about saying this is the right thing to do. Sure, it's a change, but it's nice to get that support."

If you couldn't catch Saturday's show, Skyworks says there is a second show Sunday night at the Sunapee Yacht Club at 9:20 p.m.

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Omsk city, Russia

The capital city of Omsk oblast .

Omsk - Overview

Omsk is one of the largest cities in Russia, a major scientific, cultural, sports, transport, and industrial center. The administrative center of Omsk Oblast, it is the second most populous city in Siberia.

The population of Omsk is about 1,126,000 (2022), the area - 567 sq. km.

The phone code - +7 3812, the postal codes - 644000-644246.

Omsk city flag

Omsk city coat of arms.

Omsk city map, Russia

Omsk city latest news and posts from our blog:.

10 November, 2019 / Tomsk - the view from above .

3 July, 2016 / Omsk - the view from above .

20 October, 2012 / The bear at the gate .

2 August, 2012 / Omsk city from bird's eye view .

14 December, 2011 / Time-lapse video of Omsk city .

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History of Omsk

Foundation of omsk.

The need to build a Russian fortress on the banks of the Irtysh at the mouth of the Om River arose in connection with the steppe nomadic peoples. In particular, with the Oirats, whose tribes in the first decades of the 17th century began to appear within the borders of the Russian state being under the onslaught of their external enemies and as a result of internal civil strife. However, various foreign and domestic political problems of Russia hindered the development and defense of the South Siberian borders.

The situation changed only at the beginning of the 18th century, when the Russian conquest of Siberia intensified. Since Peter I paid great attention to geographical research in the south, the expeditions of that time combined socio-political tasks and tasks of scientific research.

One of such expeditions was led by the Russian military and statesman, associate of Peter I, Major General Ivan Bukhgolts. The goals of the expedition, numbering about 3,000 people, were to search for ore and gold deposits, the discovery of trade routes to India and China, as well as the construction of towns on the Irtysh River.

The expedition left Tobolsk to the south along the Irtysh in July 1715. In the spring of 1716, after a conflict with the Dzungars in the north of today’s Kazakhstan, the remnants of the expedition (about 700 people) withdrew to the mouth of the Om River, where they laid a new fortress named Omsky ostrog (fortified settlement).

According to the census of 1725, 992 people lived in the fortress, in 1742 - 1,092 people. From the first years of its existence, it served as a place of exile for prisoners. After serving hard labor and imprisonment, a lot of them stayed in Omsk for permanent residence.

More Historical Facts…

Omsk in the second half of the 18th century

The ethnic composition of the region’s population was formed in the process of settling the territory. Russians, Germans, Ukrainians, Poles, Belarusians, and representatives of many other nationalities were sent here to serve or were exiled. The indigenous people of the region were the Siberian Tatars and Kazakhs, who switched to a sedentary lifestyle.

The foundation of the second Omsk fortress took place in 1762. The first fortress, although it occupied a favorable geographical position, was wooden and, by the middle of the 18th century, it was dilapidated. In 1765, new stone fortifications were constructed. The first stone structure of the fortress was the Resurrection Military Cathedral, built in 1773 and preserved to this day.

In the end of the 18th century, the Omsk fortress was one of the largest structures in the eastern part of the Russian Empire, its area was more than 30 hectares. In 1782, it was transformed into a town named Omsk within the Tobolsk Governorate. In 1785, the coat of arms of Omsk was approved.

Omsk became the center of management of the Siberian transport routes and the Siberian Cossack army, which not only guarded the South Siberian borders, but also made a huge contribution to the economic development of the steppe expanses of Kazakhstan, the annexation of Central Asia to the Russian Empire.

Omsk in the 19th century

The fire of 1819 destroyed almost half of the town including the archive and the magistrate of Omsk with all the first archival documents. Therefore information about the life of Omsk in the 18th - early 19th centuries is scarce and fragmentary. In 1825, the population of the town was about 9,000 people.

In 1829, the town’s development plan was approved. It was made by the famous Petersburg architect V.I. Geste, who took the city of St. Petersburg as a model with its wide avenues, huge neighborhoods, fountains, cast-iron bridges, and an abundance of green spaces.

The composition of the population of Omsk was not quite usual. In the middle of the 19th century, since Omsk was the center of the military and civil administration, the proportion of the military in the local population reached about 60%.

Fyodor Dostoevsky (one of the greatest psychological novelists in world literature), who served a term of hard labor in the Omsk prison in 1850-1854, in a letter to his brother gave Omsk the following description: “Omsk is a disgusting town. There are almost no trees. In summer, heat and wind with sand, in winter, a snowstorm. I have not seen nature. The town is dirty, military and highly depraved.”

By the second half of the 19th century, Omsk in its development outstripped many steppe towns and became not only an administrative, but also a commercial and industrial center. In 1861, in Omsk, there were 2,122 houses (31 stone houses), 34 factories and plants, about 20 thousand residents.

In 1892, the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway began, which gave a new impetus to the economy of Siberian towns and positively influenced Omsk. The development of the Trans-Siberian Railway caused an increase in the urban population due to migrants who came to work from the central part of the Russian Empire. According to the 1897 census, 37.3 thousand people lived in Omsk. The town had 14 streets with a total length of more than 140 km and 13 squares.

Omsk in the first half of the 20th century

The beginning of the 20th century was a time of great changes for Siberia. Mass peasant colonization caused a sharp leap in the development of the region’s economy, primarily its agrarian sector, and the Trans-Siberian Railway ensured the inclusion of the local economy in the system of the All-Russian and European markets.

Due to its favorable economic and geographical position - at the intersection of the railway and the Irtysh River, in the middle of a vast agricultural territory - Omsk quickly turned into a large transport, trade and industrial center of Western Siberia and Governor-Generalship of the Steppes (Eastern and Central Kazakhstan).

Wholesale trade in bread, butter and other agricultural products was concentrated here. Omsk also became one of the industrial, social and cultural centers of Western Siberia. By 1903, the city’s population grew to 60 thousand people. In 1914, it had about 134.8 thousand residents. Omsk became the most populous city in Siberia.

During the Civil War on the territory of the former Russian Empire, from June 1918 to November 1919, Omsk was the residence of the Supreme Ruler of Russia, Admiral Alexander Kolchak, who declared this city the capital of white Russia opposing red Russia of the Bolsheviks. Soviet power was finally established in the city in 1920.

In the summer of 1921, an event took place that had a decisive impact on the cultural and economic life of Omsk. The functions of the administrative center of Siberia were transferred from it to the city of Novonikolaevsk (future Novosibirsk). In 1934, Omsk became the administrative center of a separate Omsk Oblast.

Over the years of industrialization, Omsk became one of the largest centers for agricultural engineering in the USSR. The metal-working industry also developed at a rapid pace. In 1939, Omsk numbered more than 288 thousand people.

During the Second World War, about 200 industrial enterprises were evacuated to Omsk, as well as 60 hospitals, dozens of educational institutions, theaters, museums, and hundreds of thousands of refugees.

Omsk after the Second World War

In the post-war years, new enterprises were put into operation in Omsk, all existing factories and plants were reconstructed and expanded. The industrial potential of the city was also strengthened by the Omsk oil refinery, the largest in the country. In connection with the rapid development of industry, especially petrochemical enterprises, the ecological situation deteriorated. The concentration of harmful substances in the air sharply increased. In 1964, the population of Omsk was about 702 thousand people.

In the 1970s-1980s, Omsk developed rapidly. In 1975, the city’s population exceeded 1 million. The most pressing problem was the ecological situation. Omsk was in the top 10 cities of Russia in terms of environmental pollution. Another problem that required an immediate solution was the development of passenger transport. The capacity of Omsk streets was exhausted, and therefore the construction of the subway became an urgent issue.

The economic crisis that gripped Russia after the collapse of the USSR had a negative impact on the economy of Omsk and the region as a whole. There was a significant decline in industrial production, construction volumes fell, and unemployment rose. A lot of organizations of the defense complex, research institutes, and design bureaus found themselves in a deep crisis without the state defense order.

The share of mechanical engineering and metalworking, light industry, and, to a lesser extent, chemical and petrochemical, forestry and woodworking industries decreased. At the same time, the share of the fuel industry, energy, and construction materials industry began to grow.

In the 2000s, Omsk again became one of the most important economic centers of Western Siberia with a developing mechanical engineering, petrochemical industry, various branches of the woodworking, construction industry, and a highly productive agro-industrial complex. In recent years, Omsk has also acquired the features of one of the largest Siberian centers of entrepreneurship and banking/financial activities.

Architecture of Omsk

On the street in Omsk

Author: Tim Brown

Yak-9 fighter aircraft in front of the aerospace engineering company Polyot in Omsk

The Omsk Cadet Corps

Author: Stanislav Katsko

Omsk - Features

Omsk is located in the south of the West Siberian Plain at the confluence of the Om River into the Irtysh, about 150 km from the border of Russia with Kazakhstan. About 60% of all residents of Omsk Oblast live in Omsk. The City Day of Omsk is celebrated on the first Saturday of August.

The city’s coat of arms is very similar to the first coat of arms of Omsk approved by Empress Catherine II in 1785. It depicts a part of the brick fortifications, which symbolizes the reason for its foundation as a fortress and the center of the Siberian defensive line.

Omsk belongs to the temperate climatic zone with a continental climate of the forest-steppe of the West Siberian belt. It is distinguished by an abundance of sunlight. The average air temperature in January is minus 16.3 degrees Celsius, in July - plus 19.6 degrees Celsius. The highest wind speeds are observed in winter and spring, which is the reason for frequent snow and dust storms.

In the past, the ecological situation in Omsk was very unfavorable. Since 2011, the city’s environmental development rating has increased significantly. This was the result of large-scale modernization of many large industries (including the Omsk oil refinery). Today, road transport is the main source of air pollution in the city.

The level of pollution of the Omsk rivers - Irtysh and Om - remains consistently high. Swimming in them is prohibited. While industrial effluents are becoming more environmentally friendly, sewers are releasing waste products including diesel fuel and petroleum products into the rivers. Dust raised by dust storms is also a serious problem for the city as it contains a lot of harmful substances including lead.

The city’s industry is based on oil refining, petrochemistry, chemical industry, mechanical engineering (production of aerospace equipment, armored vehicles, agricultural equipment). Omsk is a major transport junction - the Trans-Siberian Railway runs through the city from west to east, and the navigable Irtysh River crosses it from south to north. Omsk Airport offers regular flights to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Tyumen, Surgut, Yekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk, Salekhard, Kazan, Krasnodar, Sochi.

The unfinished subway of Omsk has become famous in Russia thanks to its only one fully built station. Its construction began back in 1992. However, due to funding problems, the completion of the first line was postponed numerous times. In 2019, it was finally decided to permanently stop construction. For local residents, because of the long wait for the completion of the construction, the Omsk metro symbolizes unrealizable hopes, they talk about it with irony.

In Omsk, there are practically no buildings higher than 50 meters, according to this parameter it is one of the lowest cities with a population of over one million. 130 architectural monuments are concentrated in the central part of the city, almost half of the total number.

Main Attractions of Omsk

Dormition Cathedral - the largest church in Omsk located in the very center of the city. The original church was built in 1891-1898. In 1935, it was completely destroyed. In 2005-2007, an exact copy of the building was restored in its original place. This is one of the most beautiful buildings in Omsk. At night, the building is illuminated and looks especially majestic. Tarskaya Street, 7.

Irtysh Embankment - the main walking street of Omsk with a picturesque view of the Irtysh River. Built in the middle of the 20th century, the embankment was reconstructed in the 2000s. You can walk along the alley on foot, ride rollerblades or a bike.

Merchant Batyushkin’s Mansion (1902). This architectural monument is located on the Irtysh Embankment. It is also known as the Kolchak’s House because Alexander Kolchak, the Supreme Ruler of Russia, lived in this building in 1919. One part of the building is occupied by the registry office of the Central District of Omsk. The Center for the Study of the History of the Russian Civil War is also open here. Irtyshskaya Naberezhnaya Street, 9.

Omsk State Museum of History and Local Lore - one of the oldest museums in Siberia and Russia founded in 1878. In total, this museum has over 200 thousand various objects of cultural, historical and artistic value. The museum is especially proud of such exhibits as the cast-iron figures of the Chinese lions Shi-Tzu, presented to the museum from China in 1895, as well as the skeleton of a woolly mammoth almost 3 meters high. Lenina Street, 23?.

Omsk Regional Museum of Fine Arts named after M.A. Vrubel - one of the largest museums of fine arts in Siberia. It has collections of foreign and Russian art from antiquity to the present day. In total, there are over 22 thousand works by painters, graphic artists and sculptors, as well as more than 1.5 thousand rare folios.

Walking through the exhibition halls, you can admire the canvases of Shishkin, Aivazovsky, Surikov, Repin, Serov, Vereshchagin. The exhibition of rare icons dating from the 17th-20th centuries is of constant interest among visitors, as well as a unique collection of jewelry made of precious metals found in the Scythian and Sarmatian burial mounds. Two buildings of the museum are located at Lenina Street 3 and 23.

In November 2019, a new exhibition was opened in a historical building at Muzeynaya Street, 4 - the exhibition of art of the 20th-21st centuries. The Hermitage-Siberia Center is located here too - the first representation of The State Hermitage Museum (the second-largest art museum in the world) beyond the Urals.

Chokana Valikhanova Street - a pedestrian street located in the historic part of Omsk. The street is decorated with abstract architectural forms, flower beds, wrought-iron lanterns. The walking area ends with an observation deck with a picturesque view of the Irtysh River.

Museum of Kondraty Belov . The museum of this landscape painter born in Omsk can be found in a picturesque wooden house, which is considered one of the most interesting architectural monuments of Omsk. The exposition tells about the life and work of Kondraty Belov, as well as about the history of the building itself.

In total, this museum has about 700 exhibits. The permanent exhibition also includes works by Kondraty Belov’s son Stanislav and paintings by some other local artists. In addition, temporary exhibitions of contemporary Omsk artists are regularly held here. Chokana Valikhanova Street, 10.

Plumber Stepanych Monument - an unusual sculpture located in the center of Omsk, which you can literally stumble upon while walking along Lenin Street between the houses #12 and #14. Leaning out of the hatch, the plumber is depicted as realistic and life-size as possible. It is among the most photographed monuments in Omsk. There is a similar sculpture in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia.

Lyuba Monument . This sculpture, located on the opposite side of Lenin Street from the monument to the plumber Stepanych, is especially loved by Omsk residents and tourists, who love to be photographed against its background.

This beauty in a lace dress with a neckline and a crinoline sitting on an openwork bench and reading a novel had a real prototype - Lyubov (diminutively Lyuba or Lyubasha) Gasford, the wife of the Governor-General of Siberia, who lived in Omsk in the 19th century and died at a young age due to illness. One of the streets of Omsk and the park are named in her memory. She is a local symbol of femininity and beauty.

Omsk Fire Tower - a picturesque architectural monument built at the beginning of the 20th century. Inside the tower there are museum expositions dedicated to the local fire brigade and the history of tower construction. Internatsionalnaya Street, 41?.

Park of Culture and Rest named after the 30th anniversary of the Komsomol - a popular place for walks, recreation and entertainment of Omsk residents and tourists, which has retained “the spirit of the Soviet era” in its name. Today, on an area of 73 hectares, several zones have been organized, various types of recreation are presented. There are walking alleys, ponds, water activities, for example, riding on hydro-scooters.

The ice town is open in winter, the Return of the Dinosaurs exhibition - in summer. The “House Upside Down” exposition is also popular with tourists. This park is a place for mass festivities, city celebrations and events. Maslenitsa, Christmas, City Day, and other holidays are celebrated here. Maslennikova Street, 136.

Natural Park “Bird Harbor” - a specially protected area located on the path of bird migration in the central part of Omsk. During autumn flights, up to 3 thousand birds stop here for rest. It is a great place to enjoy nature, walk along the eco-trail, and observe the life of birds. The park is situated in the floodplain on the left bank of the Irtysh River next to the Victory Park on Yeniseyskaya Street.

Omsk city of Russia photos

Pictures of omsk.

Bogdan Khmelnitsky Monument in Omsk

Lenin Monument in Omsk

Churches of Omsk

Chapel of St. George in Omsk

Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Omsk

Cathedral of the Nativity in Omsk

Sights of Omsk

Fountain with frogs in the park next to the main building of the Agricultural Academy in Omsk

Author: Alexey Pavlov

Church of St. Nicholas in Omsk

Exaltation of the Holy Cross Cathedral in Omsk

Author: Stanislav Vosinsky

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Upper Valley communities turn to lasers, drones to celebrate Fourth

People watch a laser show during New Year's celebrations in Bucharest, Romania, Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru) Andreea Alexandru—AP

SUNAPEE — Fourth of July light displays will be a little different in a several Upper Valley towns this summer.

Sunapee and Lebanon are using lights instead of pyrotechnics to celebrate Independence Day, and Claremont and Woodstock have switched the dates of their annual fireworks displays. The reasons for the changes range from the availability of fireworks companies to environmental concerns.

This Saturday at 9 p.m., Sunapee will host its first-ever drone show instead of traditional fireworks. Town Manager Shannon Martinez said the switch came about after a group of residents who are “more and more concerned about the health of our watershed,” approached town officials earlier this spring about the impact the annual fireworks show has on the health of Lake Sunapee.

According to a 2019 “Environmental Fact Sheet” put together by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, debris from fireworks can be “a potential source chemical contaminants to the waterbody.” Additionally, some fireworks have phosphorus and nitrogen compounds “that contribute to algal and plant growth in lakes.”

While town officials and residents understand that the impact a single fireworks show has on the lake could be minimal “the question is ‘what are the good decisions that we can make on the daily that make sure we’re protecting our water?’ ” Martinez said in a phone interview this week.

After a few more conversations, the Selectboard approved a pilot program for a drone show. It will cost around $16,000 to put on, which is a similar cost to fireworks shows, Martinez said. The Lake Sunapee Yacht Club is working with the town to put on the display, which is primarily funded by donations.

“It feels, looks and is going to be different so (...) maybe we just have to wait to see how it goes,” Martinez said. She emphasized that this year’s drone show is a pilot program and if the community ends up not liking it, town officials will reconsider their options for next year.

Lebanon will celebrate the Fourth of July with a laser light show this year — albeit for a different reason than Sunapee. For more than 30 years, Vermont-based Northstar Fireworks has done Lebanon’s annual Fourth of July fireworks display, said Paul Coats, director of Lebanon’s Recreation, Arts and Parks Department.

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Earlier this year, Northstar Fireworks told the city that the company was “not able to offer one to Lebanon despite our pleading and offer to do them on the third or the fifth or some other time around the fourth,” Coats said. The company instead will put on a fireworks display on Thursday, Aug. 22, as part of Lebanon’s Summer Celebration.

While Lebanon doesn’t spend the most money on fireworks, Coats said, “we’ve been a loyal customer for them and they’ve been loyal to us.”

Northstar Fireworks has seen an increase in business and has had to be more selective about which shows they can do on the Fourth of July, Tom Swenson, Northstar’s general manager and choreographer, said in a phone interview this week.

“We’re so busy being a Vermont company we had to make some choices about what shows we were going to take,” Swenson said, adding that they offered Lebanon other dates around the Fourth, but city officials took too long to respond and when they did the dates were filled up. The time needed to get employees properly certified played a role, but it wasn’t the sole reason they made the decision that they did.

The company also canceled Fourth of July shows in other New Hampshire towns. On the week of the Fourth of July, the minimum financial commitment for out-of-state shows is $15,000; most spend between $20,000 and $30,000. They will be producing around 60 fireworks shows on the Fourth of July alone.

“Right now we have a waiting list,” Swenson said. He encouraged smaller communities to join together to host a single fireworks display. “I think towns are going to have to get flexible.”

After learning that Northstar was unavailable, Lebanon staff began to explore other options for a light display on the Fourth. Staff contacted other companies, but were told they were unable to add shows for new clients on the Fourth.

“Celebrating the Fourth on the fourth is a special thing and expected,” Coats said, adding that this year the Thursday holiday coincides with the weekly Lebanon Farmers Market. They had also already scheduled other events that day, such as the annual Red, White & Blue 6.2 & 5K. “There’s things that are going on that we already had set up and we didn’t want to alter those things.”

In February, staff reached out to Dynamic FX, a visual effects company that has a location in Boston, and signed a $10,250 contract with it to provide a laser light show on the Fourth of July. That’s less than the $12,500 the city paid Northstar Fireworks for the Fourth show last year, Coats said.

“If people want to speculate that we are not doing it because we want to save a dollar, that’s not accurate,” he said in a phone interview this week, adding that the plan is to resume the traditional fireworks display in 2025. “We’re not trying to cancel the Fourth of July.”

Claremont, which also uses Northstar Fireworks, changed its fireworks display to Wednesday, July 3, after they learned the company was unavailable on the Fourth of July, said Justin Martin, the new director of the Claremont Parks & Recreation Department. The rain date for the event is Friday, July 5.

“A nice benefit to the City was it was at a reduced cost than what it would have been on the Fourth,” Martin said in a phone interview this week. This year’s show will cost $15,000; he did not have information about what the city spent last year.

The more staff thought about it, though, the more the change of date seemed to benefit the community at large. Many businesses give their employees the Fourth of July off so having a late-night celebration the night before the holiday, Martin said, “sounded like it was positive in terms of change.”

The new date also makes it “a little easier for us to find volunteers to help run the event as well,” Martin added. Depending on how hosting the event on July 3 goes, the city could consider doing the same thing next year.

Woodstock also has moved its Fourth of July celebration from the fourth to the fifth.

The town had been waiting to book the fireworks display — which takes place at Woodstock Union High School — until after the bond vote for a new school, Woodstock Municipal Manager Eric Duffy said in a phone interview last month. If the March bond vote had passed, construction would be underway, and they would be unable to use the school grounds.

In late March, after the bond vote failed, town officials reached out to fireworks companies and learned they were booked up for the Fourth of July, but not the fifth.

“We figured it was the second best option we could do for the residents,” Duffy said.

Brownsville: July 3, dusk, Ascutney Outdoors, 449 Ski Tow Road.

Claremont: July 3, 9:30 p.m., Monadnock Park, 190 Broad St.

Grafton: July 6, dusk, Grafton Recreation Field, Prescott Hill Road.

Fairlee; July 4, around 9 p.m., over Lake Morey.

Hartford/Wilder: July 4, between 9:20 and 9:30 p.m., Kilowatt South Park, 61 Passumpsic Ave. (Rain date: July 5)

Hartland: July 4, 9 p.m., Hartland Recreation Center, 9 Route 12.

Lebanon (laser light show): July 4, 9:20 p.m., visible from Colburn Park, 51 N. Park St.

Randolph: July 3, dusk, Farr’s Hill, Elm Street.

Sunapee (drone show): June 29, 9 p.m., Ben Mere Park, 1 Lake Ave.

Vershire: July 6, dusk, Vershire Town Center, 27 Vershire Center Roa d.

Woodstock: July 5, dusk, Woodstock Union High School, 100 Amsden Way.

Woodsville/Wells River: July 4, 10 p.m., Woodsville Community Field, 28 Connecticut St.

Liz Sauchelli can be reached at [email protected] or 603-727-3221.

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