DULUTH – The fuse just got a lot longer on this year's July 4th fireworks display.

Duluth is postponing the annual event at Bayfront Festival Park to Labor Day after deciding that no matter how it might be altered, the pyrotechnics draw 10,000 people annually — an unacceptable risk during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"In the end we really made the decision that what people love is the ability to gather together," Mayor Emily Larson said Wednesday. "Doing so at a time that is safer, and at a time we can celebrate we are moving on as one community, felt like the way we could do that."

The 20-minute show is the nightcap on the yearly Duluth Fourth Fest held at Bayfront, and revelers often pack the park or gather on hillside vantage points to watch the sky light up over the harbor.

Fourth Fest, an afternoon of live music and food and drink, has also been canceled, though the Avett Brothers are still scheduled to perform July 5 as of now.

The city, which has laid off dozens of employees amid a mounting budget crisis, did not say how much money would be spent on fireworks this year or if it would be different from years past.

Brooks Johnson • 218-491-6496