July 4th, 2025 Fireworks & Events Around Manalapan

MANALAPAN, NJ — 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 Manalapan.

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 Manalapan and the surrounding areas.

July 4, 2025 Festivities Around Manalapan

• Independence Day Celebration At Monmouth Battlefield
• Friday, July 4 at 1 p.m.
• Monmouth Battlefield State Park
• Attendees can enjoy a reproduction full-sized Revolutionary War cannon firing demonstration, children’s artillery and infantry drills and more at this free event.
• Independence Day Celebration at Historic Longstreet Farm
• Friday, July 4 at 12 p.m.
• Historic Longstreet Farm
• Enjoy games, contests and more at Historic Longstreet Farm’s Independence Day Celebration.
• Freehold Borough Independence Day Concert & Fireworks
• Thursday, July 3 at 5:30 p.m.
• Freehold Raceway
• Check out music, fireworks and more at Freehold Borough’s Independence Day celebration. Gates open at 5:30 p.m. with fireworks set to begin around 9:20 p.m.
• Fireworks Over the Navesink River
• Thursday, July 3 at 6 p.m.
• 810 Navesink River Road, Locust
• Join the Riverview Medical Center Foundation for their Family Fireworks display over the Navesink River. The event will take place at the DiPiero Residence and tickets are required (they can be purchased here).
• Independence Day Celebration In Colts Neck
• Thursday, July 3 at 6 p.m.
• Bucks Mill Park
• Celebrate the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence at the Colts Neck Business Association’s Independence Day Celebration.

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.