July 4th 2025 Fireworks, Events Around Salem

SALEM, MA — Independence Day falls on a Friday in 2025, kicking off a star-spangled three-day weekend packed with fireworks, festivals and other Fourth of July fun in and around Salem.

To help you fit it all in on your 4th of July calendar, Patch has put together a guide to what’s going on in Salem and surrounding areas.

July 4 Festivities For 2025

What: Salem Celebrates The 4th
Where: Derby Wharf
When: Fireworks 9 p.m. on July 4; Concert at 7 p.m

Bring your beach blankets and folding chairs to enjoy the 42-piece Hillyer Festival Orchestra on Derby Wharf at the Salem Maritime National Historic Site for a grand celebration of our nation’s Independence Day.

Featuring a Pops concert, a Kid Space play area, and fireworks launched over Salem Harbor, this is a quintessential celebration of the 4th of July.

Independence Day commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. In that document, the 13 original colonies declared their independence from Great Britain.

During the pivotal summer of 1776, the pre-Revolutionary celebrations honoring King George III’s birthday were replaced with mock funerals as a symbolic break from the crown.

It was an exciting time in Philadelphia — the Continental Congress voted to break from the crown and, two days later on July 4, the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the original 13 colonies —New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland. Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia — to adopt the Declaration of Independence.

The first annual commemoration of the nation’s independence was in Philadelphia on July 4, 1777, while the Revolutionary War was ongoing. Fireworks have been part of Fourth of July festivities since the first celebration in Philadelphia.

Today, Americans celebrate with fireworks, parades, concerts, and family gatherings and barbecues. Celebrations, though, predate by centuries the designation of Independence Day as a federal holiday, which didn’t happen until 1941.