Fireworks light up the sky in Washington, D.C., on July 4, 2020. According to reports on Saturday, June 26, 2021, a fireworks display will take place at Fort George G. Meade in Maryland on July 2. (Carlos Bongioanni/Stars and Stripes)
(Tribune News Service) — Fort George G. Meade is bringing back its July 4 fireworks and celebration.
The military installation will hold a fireworks display on July 2 at 9:30 p.m. Attendees will be limited to military members, Department of Defense employees and their families. Military members and DOD employees will need their DOD identification cards, while guests older than 18 must show their Real IDs, according to a press release from Fort Meade.
The event, which was canceled last year due to restrictions put in place due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, will be scaled down. Fireworks will be held, but there will be no food vendors, kiddy rides or pre-fireworks activities.
Fort Meade is currently under Health Protection Condition Bravo, which limits what can be done on the base due to the ongoing pandemic. The base is looking to move to HPCON Alpha, which would see fewer restrictions, including increasing capacity limits from 50%, Garrison Commander Col. Christopher Nyland said during a town hall on June 17.
In order to move to HPCON Alpha, the case rate among the local area, which includes Anne Arundel and its neighboring counties, must be two per 100,000 residents for seven days, Nyland said. The first day the case rate was met was June 16, which meant the case rate would need to hold until Wednesday.
If the case rate was met, Nyland planned to start requesting a status change Friday.
Moving to HPCON Alpha does not mean moving back to pre-COVID-19 conditions, even though the state will be moving toward that on July 1, he said. The installation will continue to move slowly and deliberately.
“We all have the same goals,” Nyland said. “We just may be moving slower than you would like to, and, again, I take full responsibility for those decisions that get made, but understand I’m making those decisions using my best judgment, using the best medical advice I have and in order to protect the entire community.”
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