Above: Photo by Flickr user Jeff Golden.
Planning to spend Independence Day in the Catskills? You'll have your pick of festivals, parades, and demonstrations of explosive exuberance. (We've updated these listings -- thanks for the suggestions! -- Ed.)
Events featuring fireworks are listed first -- read on, and you’ll find other celebrations of all sorts. Unless otherwise specified, fireworks happen at dusk.
DELAWARE COUNTY
Fireworks
- Every year at the Margaretville Firemen's Field Days, the field behind the Freshtown hosts a carnival with all the bells and whistles. Enjoy rides, live bands, carnival grub and your neighbors at the Margaretville Pavilion from Tuesday, July 2 through Sunday, July 7. Fireworks on July 4 and July 6.
- The 40th Annual Fair-on-the-Square in Delhi will be going on from 5pm to 9pm every Friday night through the month of July, but on Friday, July 5 they’ll be lighting up the skies with fireworks. You’ll also get live music from 6pm to 9pm, food and arts and crafts vendors, fire safety demos, a Zoomobile, Chee Chee the Clown, and a chance to be rewarded for helping to feed the community -- both the Rotary and Knights of Columbus offer, respectively, a game or a snack for a donated can of food.
- East Branch will be kickin’ out the jams for their Annual Fireman's Field Days & Baseball Day. The fun starts at 9am on Friday and Saturday and ends with a bang (the fireworks kind) on both nights. In the daytime enjoy live bands, rides, a flea market and a town wide lawn sale. Friday is Baseball Day, with free popcorn, peanuts and cards for all.
- At the Delaware County Fairgrounds in Walton, they'll be celebrating automotive Americana on Saturday, July 6 from 9am to 3pm. After the judging, the classic rides will be revved up for a parade through downtown Walton at 7pm; enjoy fireworks at 9:30.
Above: "Of Demagogues And Firebrands," a short video filmed by Kurt Ritta in 2010 at a certain unofficial annual Fourth of July celebration in Bovina. (Wink wink, nudge nudge.)
Other Fun
- The Independence Day Celebration at the Hanford Mills Museum in East Meredith offers a splash of old-time authenticity with a frog-jumping contest (BYOF), sack races, tug-o-war, fiddle music, and free samples of fresh-churned ice cream. There’s a fishing derby for kids and a pop-up farmer’s market along with delicacies from Ate.O.Ate Catering and Eagle Ridge BBQ. You can tour the museum, watch plein air painters at work and purchase maple cotton candy and other goodies from Shaver Hill Farms. It’s all happening on Thursday, July 4, from 10am to 5pm.
- The lovely little hamlet of Roxbury hosts its annual Sidewalk Festival on Saturday, July 6 from 10am to 3pm. Enjoy live music, artisans and crafters, kids’ fun, an educational agricultural tent and all the classic foods of summer, all sponsored by the Greater Roxbury Learning Initiative Corporation.
GREENE COUNTY
Fireworks
- Windham Mountain and the Town of Windham are collaborating to bring you a splendiferous Fourth of July Celebration on Thursday, July 4. The fun starts with a parade down Main Street at 7pm and moves on to the Base Lodge for a BBQ, DJ and more from 7:30pm to 10:30pm. Fireworks at 9.
- The Durham Independence Day Celebration is an all day affair on Saturday, July 6 starting at 11am. They’ll have a parade down Durham’s Main Street, free hot dogs and soda at the Michael J. Quill Irish Cultural and Sports Centre, live entertainment, and fireworks.
- Catskill is celebrating a day early. On Wednesday, July 3, head down to Dutchmen’s Landing and enjoy Music in the Park with the Lustre Kings & Fireworks. The concert starts at 7pm; fireworks at around 9pm.
- Cairo’s annual Fourth of July Celebration kicks off at 11:30am on Thursday, July 4 with a joyful ribbon-cutting for the new playground equipment in Angelo Canna Park. The good times roll from there, with a ballgame, food and music leading up to fireworks at dusk.
- Bear Creek Landing in Hunter is hosting a barbecue on Friday, July 5, and plans to set up fireworks around 9pm that night.
Other Fun
- Tannersville’s annual Independence Day blowout on Saturday, July 6 starts with a street party at 1pm, with vendors and the live sounds of Mother’s Psychosis. At 3pm there’s a parade down Main Street; at 4pm, you can hear the New Orleans jazz of Etienne Charles.
SCHOHARIE COUNTY
Fireworks
- Downtown Cobleskill will be decked out in red, white and blue for the annual Fourth of July Celebration on Thursday, July 4. Fairground festivities start at 2pm; at 5pm, there will be a parade through town, ending up back at the fairground. Fireworks at dusk.
Other Fun
- History lovers will enjoy the classic feel of the Old Stone Fort Independence Day Celebration in Schoharie, from 10am to 5pm on Thursday, July 4. There will be dramatic readings of the Declaration of Independence and other documents, and a “visitor-interactive” debate on the question of taking up arms against the government.
- On Saturday, July 6, you can show your Middleburgh spirit along with your national pride at the first-ever Middleburgh Pride Day. The festivities run from 11am to 8pm, and feature a terrific lineup of folk musicians, including 14-year-old local songwriting prodigy Sawyer Fredericks.
SULLIVAN COUNTY
Fireworks
- Monticello Raceway is having its 45th Annual Fireworks Extravaganza, and you’d better believe they know how to do it right by now. The evening’s racing program starts at 5:30pm on Thursday, July 4. Free admission; fireworks begin 20 minutes after the racing ends.
Other Fun
- What better place to celebrate Independence Day than in the town of Liberty? The town's annual Liberty Festival on the Fourth of July takes over Main Street from 10:30am to 4pm and includes something for every taste: a tribute to the town’s poet laureate, an art picnic, a dunking booth, a classic car show and a parade along with the ubiquitous food/music/vendors combo.
- Wurtsboro’s Founders' Day Street Fair takes place on Saturday, July 6 from 11am to 5pm and offers a lumberjacking demonstration, a flight simulator, a human truck pull, and an afternoon full of all-American music a la blues, Motown, country, and retro and classic rock.
ULSTER COUNTY
Fireworks
- Ellenville’s Fourth of July Parade steps off at noon and paints the town red, white and blue, and the festivities don’t end until the grand finale of accompanying fireworks.
- Fireworks viewing from the catbird’s seat is available on July 4 at Walkway Over the Hudson’s Fireworks Spectacular. Bring a picnic, a flashlight and a lawn chair and get a great perch from which to view Poughkeepsie’s display. The park will open at 6:30; fireworks start around 9:30. No smokes, alcohol or dogs, please.
- Kingston’s Independence Day Weekend Celebration features three nights of music and exuberance on the Rondout waterfront. Fireworks blast off Thursday at 9pm following a party that starts at 3pm. On Friday there’s a free concert by the Hudson Valley Philharmonic at 7pm, and Saturday from 5pm to 8pm the Rondout area will be hopping with art gallery receptions; enjoy the Raya Brass Band and a spectacular lantern release over the water.
- Up the line in Saugerties, a parade steps off from the high school at 11am on Thursday, July 4. On Saturday and Sunday, Sawyer Motors hosts their annual two-day car show and extravaganza. On Saturday, July 6, the party’s at Cantine Field from 1pm to dusk, with “a carnival, a cruise-in, a musical concert, home run derby, skydivers, pig races, hot air balloon rides" -- and, of course, fireworks. Sunday, they’re shutting down Main and Partition Streets from 1pm to 5pm for over 500 classic cars and nonstop entertainment.
- New Paltz lights up on Saturday, July 6, with their traditional bash at the Ulster County Fairgrounds. Gates open at 5pm so you can secure a picnic spot and enjoy a diverse musical lineup including traditional Independence Day faves Soul Purpose. Fireworks around 9:30pm; if it rains, they’ll do the whole thing on Sunday, July 7.
Other Fun
- The High Falls Cafe Happy 4th of July Golf Tournament & BBQ takes place on Thursday, July 4 at 1pm. The Café is nestled back in the inner spaces of High Falls and is managed (and frequented) by a warm and lively crew. Even if you’re not a golfer, the promise of music by Breakaway with Robin Baker and “plenty of great vittles and ice cold beverages” makes for a stellar afternoon.
- Rosendale will be wishing a happy birthday to the nation with a reading of "the document that changed the world" performed by a diverse assortment of community members at the Rosendale Theatre, at 9:30am on the 4th. After the Declaration of Independence is read, they'll serve coffee and cake. Admission is free.
- The Ashokan Center is hosting a Gala Uke Fest Concert on Friday, July 5 in Olivebridge. There will be "six great ukulele stylists" strumming together, inlcuding Ruthy Ungar. 8pm, $25/$20 advance.
Have we missed any upcoming Fourth festivities? Let us know and we'll add them to the list -- or you can add them to our free Catskills event calendar yourself. Click here for instructions on how to post events to our website.
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