A big thank you to all the donors, volunteers, Boy Scouts, businesses in town, Police, Fire, and other town departments, who helped to make this another memorable Independence Day celebration.

Sunset at 8:23 PM marked the beginning of the festivities last night and we were treated to a beautiful evening sky and some even saw a rainbow in a southerly direction around the time of sunset.

The harbor illumination began at 8:45 PM and we thank all the people around the harbor for once again picking up their allocation of flares at the Fire Station and lighting them on time. Here is a panoramic shot of the beginning of the harbor illumination from our boat.

The fireworks began at 9:02 PM and lasted for half an hour. I hope you all enjoyed the show. I was out on our boat, so I didn’t have a stable platform for taking great photos, but this one shot came out half-way decent showing the reflections in the water.

If you have photos or videos of the fireworks you’d like to share, please post them on our Fireworks Forever Facebook group. There is also a nice writeup and some great photos of our fireworks on Karman Lee’s photo blog.

Today’s the day. Preparations for the fireworks began at 5:30 AM today – shortly after sunrise – at the BYC dock where three vessels – Elizabeth M., Reel Magic, and Cydonia got their crews onboard and left for the Commercial St. Landing to pick up the fireworks.

In addition to several members of the Marblehead Fireworks Committee we had plenty of volunteers show up to help with the logistics and we are very grateful for their support in making the fireworks happen.

At 7:30 AM the truck showed up and we began loading the fireworks on Elizabeth M.

Enjoy the day on the water or wherever you are celebrating it with friends and family and we’ll see you all tonight at the 2010 Marblehead Fireworks and Harbor Illumination.

Coastal Living Magazine just published their July issue and ranked Marblehead among the Top 10 places in the entire country to celebrate the Fourth!

This is an outstanding honor to be named #7 in a national ranking – and to be the highest-ranking place on the entire East Coast! Also, keep in mind that out West the major cities, like San Francisco, Seattle, and Honolulu, dominate their list, whereas we are the only place in all of New England to be included!

The credit for that goes to all the countless volunteers, private donors, and businesses in town who donate their time and money, as well as to all the town employees who participate to make our fireworks so great year after year! We are also grateful to Atlas PyroVision Productions, who have designed and launched the fireworks for us every year, and who are also a major sponsor of the event.

If you are a Marblehead resident on the harbor waterfront we invite you to participate in the traditional harbor illumination prior to the fireworks on July 4th. The harbor illumination is scheduled to start at 8:45 p.m. and the fireworks are planned for 9:00 p.m.

To pick up your allocation of flares, please come to the Marblehead Fire Department at 1 Ocean Ave on the weekend of June 27/28 and ask for the Staff Captain on duty. You will be provided with an amount of flares appropriate to the waterfront length of your property and will receive those flares free of charge.

Please use caution when storing and handling the flares and ignite them only at the start of the harbor illumination on July 4th. Keep the flares out of the reach of children and animals at all times!

Thank you for your participation in the harbor illumination!

Sunrise on Sunday, July 4th, 2010, is at 5:11 AM and sunset will be at 8:23 PM. Morning high tide is at 5:16 AM and reaches 8.34 ft, followed by a low tide at 11:23 AM at 1.37 ft. The evening high tide is at 5:42 PM and reaches 8.82 ft followed by a low tide at 11:57 PM at 1.52 ft.

This means that at the beginning of the fireworks at about 9:00 PM you will have a tidal level of 4.88 ft above MHW with a strong ebb current and at the end of the fireworks that level will have dropped about 2 ft so you need to take that into account if you are anchoring anywhere near Brown’s island or other places that have tidal flats.

We don’t want to see you aground at night!

Welcome to the 2010 Marblehead Fireworks and Harbor Illumination Official Web Site. We hope you will find the site informational and entertaining. We also hope that by visiting with us you will be motivated to send us a donation to insure that we can continue this fine Marblehead Tradition.

The Fireworks are scheduled for July 4th, 2010 approximately 9:00 p.m. The Harbor Illumination will begin at 8:45 p.m. and immediately following we will LIGHT THE FUSE ON THIS YEAR’S EDITION OF FIREWORKS FOREVER!

---

The countdown to the 4th has started!