Fireworks Return To Danvers Sky For Inaugural Summer Night Lights

DANVERS, MA — Danvers summer fireworks — once a beloved and highly popular (perhaps even a bit too popular) event each year — are returning to town for the first time in a decade.

Only the inaugural Summer Night Lights festival set for Danvers High School on Aug. 11 will not be quite like the grand celebrations that drew an estimated 30,000 or more people from across the North Shore to the town each July 3 before their permanent cancellation in 2015.

"We are bringing back the fireworks — with a twist," Danvers FalconFest President Amy Ciancarelli told Patch on Thursday.

The Summer Night Lights festival will include fireworks. But Ciancarelli said the show from Ocean State Pyrotechnics does not include shells with the fireworks only going up about 200 feet.

"It's all done safely right at the baseball field," she said. "The best place to see them will be at the field itself."

The fireworks are expected to last about 10 minutes with choreographed music set to them. They will conclude a family-friendly event that runs from 5 to 9 p.m. and will include music, entertainers, a food truck pavilion, 50/50 raffle, a bike parade, yard games, relay races and a pie-baking contest.

It is one of four events in 2024 that are part of Danvers FalconFest, which also include the Downtown Rewind, January Bonfire and September Wiffle Bowl.

"FalconFest is all about bringing back and celebrating the community we live in and the traditions we shared together," Ciancarelli said. "One of the biggest traditions in town happened to be the fireworks. When they went away because of whatever happened in the past we noticed a big void. Our friends noticed it. Our neighbors noticed it.

"We were tired of going to neighboring towns for events that we knew we could have here in our town."

The entertainment at Summer Night Lights includes the band WildFire, Davey the Clown and Magic by George.

"We're trying to kind of pull together a fun, down-home event for everyone to enjoy during the day and cap it off with that firework display at night," Ciancarelli said.

She said the Facebook event page already shows about 5,000 people as interested in attending.

"It will certainly bring a big crowd," she said. "It's our first year doing this, and it hasn't been done for a long time, so we don't know exactly what to expect. It's a new venue and a whole new ball of wax."

Those looking for updates can get them through the FalconFest website or social media.

Those wishing to volunteer for this or future FalconFest events are encouraged to apply to do so through the website as well.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)