2018 Macy's July 4 Fireworks Celebration In East River This Year - Great Views From Roosevelt Island FDR Four Freedoms Park, But Will Roosevelt Island Residents Get Tickets For Event

Roosevelt Island residents will have fantastic views of the 2018 Macy's July 4 Fireworks celebration

Image From Macy's July 4th Celebration

as the festivities take place for the fourth consecutive year on the East River.

That is if you are fortunate enough to obtain the free tickets to experience the July 4 fireworks from FDR Four Freedoms and adjacent Southpoint Park

(2017 View From FDR Park)

made available by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC).

Last year, 2500 tickets were available for viewing the July 4 Fireworks at FDR 4 Freedoms and Southpoint Park. Advanced online registration was available for Roosevelt Island residents. But many residents were upset that tickets were sold out within a few minutes of becoming available or that they did not know about the advanced online ticket registration. Also, remaining unexplained by RIOC was why were there standby tickets available on July 4 when the advanced tickets were reportedly sold out.



Will RIOC's July 4 ticketing process work better this year than in the past?

The Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) Common Council discussed the July 4 Fireworks distribution system during their June 6 meeting urging RIOC to make known to residents as early as possible the process to get tickets.

Here's the RIRA discussion.



Today, I asked RIOC Public Information Officer Alonza Robertson about the July 4 ticket distribution:

How and when will tickets be distributed. Will RI residents again be given early preference for obtaining tickets?

Mr. Robertson replied:

The plan for the fireworks, tickets for the viewing area etc., will be available online. It is going to be released next week, once we get through RI Day.

As reported May 18, RIOC President Susan Rosenthal



said about the Roosevelt Island July 4 Fireworks celebration:

.... It's pretty clear that the Cornell Campus will remain open. Of course it's always subject to change if all of a sudden we have too many people and there is a public safety risk but the plan is to keep it open and  most likely ticketing for Southpoint Park and 4 Freedoms Park as it has been in the past.

This is all in the planning stage and when we have something more definitive, I will share it with you.

The Roosevelt Island Parents Network Coordinator shared this message last year regarding difficulties some residents had in obtaining July 4 Fireworks tickets:

Dear Community,

Last Thursday I emailed president of RIOC Ms. Susan Rosenthal the responses I collected about families' frustration and requests about fireworks viewing, and on Friday I got to speak with her over the phone.

She explained that they had to set up such procedure and number limit because Four Freedom Park is a state park, and they even tried to remove some waterside structures to maximize the number of people allowed in the park. She is sympathetic that not all who wished to go could, however they have to ensure the safety of all those who did get tickets, e.g. if any emergency happens, emergency vehicles should be able to move around easily, and/or people should be able to evacuate quickly enough.

As to the online ticket claiming, they had an outside contributor to manage the process and she thinks that it is likely that a lot of people were getting it all at the same time in the first few minutes.

I also asked about how many standby tickets are, and whether they can have a separate area for family with small children, and she replied that the number will depend on the number of ticketed folks who actually come to the event. Also because of that it's not easy to set up separate spots for standby tickets. (We can however still submit it for their consideration for future events.)

She also invites all residents to continue submitting requests and suggestions and they will do their best to accommodate next year and beyond....

Hope those Roosevelt Island residents who want July 4 Celebration Tickets are able to get them.