Bayside To Celebrate Independence Day Early With Fireworks

BAYSIDE, QUEENS -- Independence Day fireworks will illuminate the skies above Fort Totten this week as the Bayside park hosts its fourth annual celebration in honor of the holiday.

Thousands are expected to set up their blankets, lawn chairs and picnics on Fort Totten's parade grounds Wednesday evening for the early July 4 Celebration complete with a free concert and fireworks display, according to organizers at the Bayside Historical Society.

Fort Totten's front gates will open at 5 p.m. and participants will be greeted by an array of food trucks selling roasted corn, fresh lemonade, funnel cakes, sausage and peppers, fish & chips, gyros and corn dogs, according to the Bayside Historical Society website.

The festivities will begin at 6 p.m. with a free concert on the parade grounds. This year's lineup includes Michelle Marie Rock Camp from 6 to 6:45 p.m., Chicken Head Rocks from 7 to 7:45 p.m. and Phil Costa & the Something Special Big Band from 8 to 9 p.m.

The celebration will close out with a fireworks show at 9:15 p.m.

Limited parking will be available at the Little Bay Parking Lot, underneath the Throgs Neck Bridge, along Bell Boulevard west of Fort Totten and along Utopia Parkway.

Shuttles to Fort Totten will also be available from the Clearview Golf Course starting at 5 p.m. and the Bay Terrace Shopping Center starting at 6 p.m. Vallo Transportation yellow busses will run from 6 to 9 p.m. and from 9:30 to 10:30 p.m.

Photo courtesy of Dmytro Balkhovitin/Shutterstock.com