2026 Independence Day: Long Beach Peninsula celebrates America\u2019s 250th anniversary in patriotic fashion<\/p>\n
Published 1:36 pm Sunday, July 5, 2026<\/p>\n
LONG BEACH PENINSULA \u2014 A weekend of smoke- and spark-filled, red, white and blue revelry, in celebration of America\u2019s 250th anniversary, has ebbed along the Long Beach Peninsula.<\/p>\n
It was a star-spangled weekend of celebrations all along the peninsula, beginning in Ilwaco and continuing in Seaview, Long Beach and Ocean Park.<\/p>\n
The annual fireworks show at the Port of Ilwaco was held on Friday night, drawing thousands to the banks with blankets and lawn chairs around the marina in anticipation of the show. Boats in the marina doubled as viewing platforms for friends and family, some climbing to the top of the fly bridge for a better view during the roughly 30-minute show. <\/p>\n
The 15th annual Seaview parade kicked off Saturday, July 4, drawing dozens to the increasingly-popular community parade, starting near the intersection of K Place and 34th Street. Two human-sized, inflatable bald eagles and a scaled-down version of the Statue of Liberty were among the dozens of red, white and blue-clad participants of all ages, including three-year-old Finn Vitkoczy, who added to the ambiance with a battery-powered bubble gun as a group being pulled in a trailer sang Don McClean\u2019s 1971 hit song \u201cAmerican Pie.\u201d<\/p>\n
By 1 p.m. Saturday the temperature had risen to the low 70s in Ocean Park before the beginning of the town\u2019s Old Fashioned Fourth of July Parade, starting with a flyover from a Coast Guard helicopter that drew cheers and waves from the thousands lining Bay and Pacific Avenue.<\/p>\n
Local civic clubs served hot dogs and kids blew bubbles from the sidewalk as classic tractors and American-made muscle cars led the parade, which included dozens of participants including local veterans, businesses and organizations as well as a waving impersonator of America\u2019s first president, George Washington.<\/p>\n
By Saturday evening, thousands had already poured into local beach approaches in anticipation \u2014 and often participation \u2014 of the evening fireworks, with the biggest crowds congregating near the Bolstad beach approach in Long Beach. Smoke and sparks filled the night sky as the sun began to set over the Peninsula, with the peak of the show occurring around 10 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026 Independence Day: Long Beach Peninsula celebrates America\u2019s 250th anniversary in patriotic fashion Published 1:36 pm Sunday, July…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-387258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}