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Many locals and tourists in the Adirondacks look forward to watching bright blues and purples explode in the night sky on a warm summer night, in celebration of Independence Day. Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, most fourth of July celebrations are either up in the air or downright cancelled.
The communities of Long Lake and Raquette Lake have decided to go a different route and are hosting a new “Light up the Lakes” event on July 2.
Tim Helms, the Long and Raquette Lake coordinator is responsible for planning and hosting events that promotes tourism in both towns.
“This summer we have to curtail a lot of our events or cancel them outright so we’re trying to host some new events, so that we can follow CDC guidelines and not have crowds,” said Helms.
Residents of Long Lake and Raquette Lake are invited to put up lights and decorations on their homes. Anyone who lives in either community is welcome to participate. (It’s not just houses on the lake or full-time residents.)
“We thought that this would be something that would bring the community together, decorate the town for the fourth and also give people something fun to do and we are offering prizes as an added incentive,” said Helms.
This past spring Long Lake did a similar event to bring the community together. Community members made bear cut outs, the town logo, to get people’s sense of community while being isolated at home.
Light up the Lakes is a brand-new event for this year. Residents can call the office and sign up in Long or Raquette Lake to be eligible for prizes. Call 518-624-3077 to sign up or email longlakeevents@gmail.com by Noon on Thursday, July 2, 2020. Houses can be decorated however residents want. Houses can have themes, Christmas lights and much more.
“We’ll go around and judge the houses on July 2 and then we’re asking everyone to leave the decorations up through the fourth,” said Helms.
The Long and Raquette Lake communities will shine with festivities from July 2 to the 4.
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The fireworks thing doesn’t make much sense. When they are shot off into the air (particularly over an open area such as one of the many lakes, but even the ones normally done in Albany in the plaza work this way), they can usually be seen from a fair distance, thus you don’t need to have people crowded into one spot to watch them.
It’s the noise Billy! Society is drawn towards noise. People would be discombobulated without their noise which is a good thing for places like the Adirondacks.