Fourth of July in Vero Beach — Vero Beach, Florida

Vero Beach marks the Fourth of July with a city festival at Riverside Park that runs from late afternoon until a fireworks show at about 9 p.m., watched from the park and from the Indian River Lagoon. The City of Vero Beach Recreation Department presents it, and the city keeps a July 4th Information page under the Recreation Department on covb.org. Since 2023 the event has gone by the name Independence Day on the Indian River.

The most recent edition in the record is July 4, 2025. A Vero News report the next day said light showers did not stop the celebration: there were bounce houses for children, food trucks, beer and wine for adults and live music by Johnnie and the Blaze, and attendees looked toward the sky at 9 p.m. for the fireworks display at Riverside Park, 3001 Riverside Park Drive. Spectators on the mainland across the lagoon could also see the show.

The format has changed little in more than a decade of Vero News coverage. In 2012 the event was called Vero's 4th of July Family Fun and Fireworks: activities began at 5 p.m. with bounce houses, face painting, the Fireman's Express Choo Choo train and food vendors, and the 2012 notice said the Zambelli Internationale fireworks would begin at dusk around 9 p.m. and last about 20 minutes. In 2014 the Vero Beach festival opened at 4:30 p.m. with live music, and the show ran 20 or 25 minutes, according to Vero News.

Rules for Riverside Park have been posted with the schedule. The 2012 notice said personal alcoholic beverages, fireworks and dogs were not permitted in the park, while alcohol was available to buy on site. Beer and wine sales have continued since, and in 2018 and 2019 the Vero Beach Lifeguard Association ran the beer tent.

The show nearly ended around 2010. A July 2013 Vero News account said that due to budget cutbacks, Vero Beach fireworks were on the chopping block three years earlier until Mulligan's stepped in, and that the restaurant had donated $10,000 a year to the City of Vero Beach since then to keep the Independence Day tradition going. The afternoon Family Fun program was in its third year in 2013.

Mulligan's Beach House has stayed with the Riverside Park show since. It was a sponsor in 2012 and the fireworks or presenting sponsor in 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 in Vero News reports. Indian River County has also put money in, listed among sponsors in 2012, 2015, 2019 and 2021, and Treasure and Space Coast Radio partnered with the Recreation Department for several years; in 2018 the station manager said the radio group helped because the department had limited funds. The 2018 Vero News report quoted city officials saying the City of Vero Beach has presented a 4th of July fireworks show for at least 25 years.

Crowd estimates for the Vero Beach fireworks vary widely by source. In 2013 the sponsor's events coordinator told Vero News that about 25,000 people were usually in the park by the time the fireworks started. For the 2019 Centennial show more than 10,000 people were expected. In June 2020, City Manager Monte Falls told Vero News that the event usually attracts between 5,000 to 7,000 people to the riverside area.

Many more watch from outside Riverside Park. Vero News has reported spectators on both sides of the lagoon, on boats and kayaks, along the bridges and nearby roadways, and at docks. A radio simulcast synchronized to the fireworks lets distant viewers follow along; 93.7 The Breeze carried it in 2012 and 2013, and in 2021 three iHeart stations aired the synchronized music.

The 2019 show doubled as a birthday party for the city. Vero News reported that families gathered for the 4th of July Celebration and Vero Beach Centennial Fireworks early in the day, with bands, a petting zoo, a butterfly feeding tent and fireworks with a little extra oomph for the City Centennial. The 2019 report listed Indian River County, the City of Vero Beach and Mulligan's as fireworks sponsors.

The next year there was no show. In June 2020 the City of Vero Beach canceled the Riverside Park fireworks because physical distancing could not be ensured with a crowd that size. Fireworks returned on July 4, 2021 under a new name, Boom On The Lagoon, from 5 to 9 p.m., with Mulligan's Beach House as presenting sponsor in cooperation with the city and Indian River County, according to the city's June 2021 announcement in Vero News. The 2022 edition kept the Boom on the Lagoon name and added hula hoop, limbo and pie eating contests.

By July 2023 the event was being billed as Independence Day on the Indian River, hosted by the City of Vero Beach and presenting sponsor Mulligan's Beach House, according to Vero News. In 2024 the city added an earlier start. A May 2024 announcement said a new Dog Days of Summer program, hosted by The Source, would run from 1:30 to 4 p.m. at Riverside Park with a Top Dog competition for local businesses and a hot dog eating contest, before the city festival from 5 p.m. to the 9 p.m. fireworks.

For 2025 the Vero News preview gave the Independence Day on the Indian River schedule as a 5 p.m. start, live music at 6 p.m. and fireworks at 9 p.m. No schedule for a 2026 edition was found in the sources reviewed for this page, so the 2025 festival remains the latest confirmed one.

The day in Vero Beach starts in the ocean. Swim to the Wreck is an Independence Day morning tradition in which swimmers, kayakers and paddlers go about a quarter mile out to the wreck of the SS Breconshire. The July 2024 Vero News report said it was started 20 years earlier by members of Sunrunners of Vero Beach, set out from the beach at Sexton Plaza, and that the Breconshire met its watery demise in 1894; swimmers toast the flag that stands on the wreck. In 2025 the Vero News preview listed a 7 a.m. start from the beach near Costa d'Este, with no registration required.

Sebastian, to the north in Indian River County, holds its own Freedom Festival at Riverview Park with a morning parade and fireworks over the river on the same day.