With a little less than two months until the 4th of July holiday, the annual fireworks display held at the Lakefront in Columbia has been cancelled for 2020.
The Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks made the announcement, saying the decision was a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Howard County Executive Calvin Ball said during a virtual press conference:
“We have made the difficult decision to cancel our July 4 fireworks celebration hosted annually at Lake Kittamaqundi in Columbia. Our fireworks celebrations draw large crowds of generally between 20,000 and 30,000 residents and visitors, and we do not anticipate being in a place in early July where it will be safe for that many people to gather, not just from our county [or] our state but frankly from around our region.”
The Department has also extended their cancellations of all weddings and large gatherings at their facilities until at least June 14. They will reevaluate next week.
The announcement comes just one day after the first steps in a slow and gradual reopening of the state began to take place as parks, golf courses and other recreational activities were allowed to resume with some restrictions in place.
Source: The Baltimore Sun