If you really want to see what Chicago is like on the Fourth, you need to fly over the neighborhood where all the Chicago cops (and therefore all of the confiscated fireworks) are more ›

We reckon this is a good time to give you a slightly different perspective on the life cycle of a firework. more ›

Those are a lot of fireworks. more ›

For today's Around Town, we're sharing photos from last night's festivities and fireworks. more ›

Cook County sheriffs are still searching for others in connection to a big bust they made last week that turned up enough explosives "to level an entire city block." Felicia West of Matteson was arrested last week in possession of (literally) a shit-ton of fireworks and explosives. From the Tribune: more ›

For this year's Fourth of July fireworks display, city officials have announced plans to stage three synchronized events along the lakefront to save money and improve public safety issues. The three events--at Navy Pier, at Foster and Lawrence in the north, and at 59th Street in the south--are set to replace the annual celebration in Grant Park on July 3. Jill Niland, along with other conservationists and nature lovers, is worried that the north and south celebrations will draw huge crowds to the Montrose and 63rd Street beaches, both of which contain "ecologically sensitive nature areas," according to the Chicago Tribune. more ›

Another popular city event has been trimmed thanks to the City's ongoing budget crisis. The annual July 3 fireworks that accompany the Taste of Chicago will not happen in 2010, Mayor Daley's office announced today, citing budgetary concerns. Instead, the city will hold 3 separate fireworks displays on July 4: one at Navy Pier and one each at a TBD location on the North and South Sides. more ›

Holiday celebrations ended abruptly and horrifically for many gathered on a pedestrian bridge in Merrillville, Ind. Saturday evening. The bridge, holding an estimated 100, collapsed as people dispersed after a fireworks show that evening, according to Chicago Breaking News. While there were significant injuries, no one died and everyone was rescued, reported a Merrillville dispatcher. more ›

Around 5,000 pounds of "high-powered, commercial-grade fireworks" have gone missing in DuPage County and now authorities are worried whoever stole them may not be ready for the oomph of the explosives which are more powerful than the bottle rockets and low-grade shells that most people buy from stands and shoot off on Independence Day. Sgt. Jim Ruff, commander of the department's Hazardous Device Unit, put it succinctly when talking to the Sun-Times: "If one of these things goes off in your hand, you're probably going to die." more ›

The Grant Park Orchestra has performed for the City's Independence Eve celebration every year since the Petrillo Music Shell opened in 1978, a tradition that is changing this Friday when the 85th Army Band takes over the pre-fireworks concert. The GPO will instead perform a daytime concert on July 4 in the Pritzker Pavilion, an event the Grant Park Music Festival and Millennium Park are characterizing as a new tradition, indicating that this change is a permanent one. more ›

With the current recession pushing local and national unemployment levels to new highs, it's hard to take more trivial casualties of the recession very seriously. Yet, sometimes it's the small things that help ease - if only temporarily - our worries and fears in a tanking economy. And one of those things are fireworks. The loud, sparkly explosions still leaves many a Chicagoist staffer in wide-eyed awe. But for some areas, budget cuts in the current recessions mean events like 4th of July fireworks are among the first to go. For example, North Aurora has reportedly already canceled theirs and Batavia is considering doing the same unless they can find more money. more ›

We're getting on towards the end of the year and as we mark the things we're thankful for, one of them is Lollapalooza. Year after year it leaves us with some jaw-dropping performances that make it worth all the sweat and crowds and this year, there were several more that will enter the Lolla Hall of Fame, but we're going to focus on two for now. more ›

Ya know those boxes of your favorite childhood hand-held firework, sparklers, you just picked up for tonight's festivities? Yeah, they're illegal. Last September the City Council passed an amendment adding sparklers to the list of banned fireworks. If this is the first you've heard about it, you're not alone. Despite the ban, sparklers are still easy to obtain and sold at stores around the area (Izzy Rizzy's Trick Shop and a few local K-Mart stores to name a few), as many store managers are not even aware the amendment was passed. more ›

Someone set off fireworks inside Tasty Sub restaurant on W 16th Street around 1am today. No one was injured, but the explosion damaged the restaurant's ceiling and broke some bullet-proof glass. And over the weekend, police arrested a man in Joliet for throwing an M-80 firecracker into a pub. No one was seriously hurt in that explosion, either, but it occurs to us that if people would just read , we'd all be able to take firework and firecracker safety a lot more seriously. more ›