Duluth Saves July 4th Festival

The faltering economy has taken its toll on Fourth of July celebrations. There will be no fireworks display in downtown Lawrenceville this year, but Duluth found the volunteers to put on the show.

Budget crunches will be silencing firework displays all over the state this weekend. Duluth festival officials said they expect to double the number of people attending their firework display from last year due to this year's cancellation of "Gwinnett Glows."

Gwinnett County's annual firework display brought in approximately 50,000 people. This is the first time the event has gone dark in 20 years. The festival might not happen next year because of continued budge problems.

Bring in the music bands, the food vendors and the pyrotechnics, on most years, would cost the city of Duluth almost $40,000. For a town known for its patriotism, this is no ordinary Fourth of July.

"We don't want to spend our taxpayers' money unwisely," said Duluth spokesperson Jayne Madigan.

Staring at a budget shortfall and looking for places to cut, Duluth, like many other cities, considered what some might call "an extravagant expense" of the annual July 4th festival.

"The budget has been and they're trying to find ways to provide for everything that they have to and one of the first things to go is one of those things," said Three Guys Entertainment's Gary Sarver.

Just as Duluth was looking to axe their festival, music band, such as The Woody's, offered to play for free.

"We collectively as a band decided do things like this so we can give back a little bit to the people that come out and see our shows and support us," said band member Lesli Bryson.

All of a sudden, a scaled-back version of the festival was possible.

"We've had a lot more folks donating their time this year," said Madigan.

Organizers said they expect about 20,000 people for Friday's festivities.

There are still firework displays going on in Gwinnett County and the metro area. For a complete listing, check myfoxatlanta's fireworks map located on the alert bar of our site. Or just click the link to the left!