By Mike McCombs
With Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island declining to hold an Independence Day fireworks show, the town of Port Royal is now the only game in town. Port Royal, in partnership with the Community Beer Garden, will hold its Hometown Celebration on Monday, July 4.
There will be two stages for live music, beginning at 2 p.m. On the Community Beer Garden stage, Austin Williams will perform from 2 to 4 p.m., and Campfire Tyler will perform from 6 to 8 p.m. On the main stage, near the entrance to the boardwalk, the Esquires will play from 4 to 6 p.m., while the Marine Corps Rock Band will play from 8 p.m. until.
“The fireworks will start sometime after 9 p.m., when it’s completely dark,” Town of Port Royal Town Manage Van Willis said.
The Boy Scouts will be serving hot dogs and hamburgers and there will be several food trucks on hand inside the Community Beer Garden offering other options.
No pets will be allowed, aside from service dogs. No firearms or concealed weapons are allowed, and coolers are prohibited.
Last year, Port Royal was forced to have a fireworks “do-over.”
The original July 4 show was saddled with delays before being cut short for technical reasons. Town of Port Royal Mayor Joe DeVito promised a make-up show sometime in the fall and made good on his word on Labor Day weekend.
“They realized what they had done wrong and they have corrected it,” Willis said of Munnerlyn Pyrotechnics, the company contracted to put on Port Royal’s fireworks display last year, as well as this year. “They made it up to us, so it was not so bad.”
Willis wanted to remind residents that the Port Royal Boat Landing will not be open July 4.
“We close it down every year,” Willis said, “but that doesn’t mean people won’t show up and be mad.”
In one other logistical update, Willis said the town is actually shooting off their fireworks from The Sands Beach this year, as opposed to a barge in the river as in previous years.
“The tides work out perfectly,” he said, “and we can isolate them way on the end, safely away from the people on the beach.”
Mike McCombs is the editor of The Island News and can be reached at TheIslandNews@gmail.com.
