{"id":133071,"date":"2026-06-13T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/silverton-prepares-for-single-biggest-weekend-of-the-year-fireworks-or-not\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T17:00:00","slug":"silverton-prepares-for-single-biggest-weekend-of-the-year-fireworks-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/silverton-prepares-for-single-biggest-weekend-of-the-year-fireworks-or-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Silverton prepares for single biggest weekend of the year, fireworks or not"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A street parade held on July Fourth 2024 in Silverton. The town is preparing family-friendly events, including a new block party the evening of July 4, to ensure the holiday is well-celebrated, fireworks or not. (Shane Benjamin\/Durango Herald file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Silverton is preparing for its biggest celebration of the year regardless of whether fireworks will fly.<\/p>\n

DeAnne Gallegos, spokesperson for the San Juan County Office of Emergency Management, said a town meeting held Thursday afternoon was inconclusive about whether fireworks will be safe and feasible on Independence Day.<\/p>\n

That said, other daylong family-friendly events will be held regardless of whether there will be a fireworks show.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not saying an absolute yes, and we\u2019re not saying an absolute no, but we\u2019re marching along,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

To compensate in case hot and dry conditions prove too dangerous for fireworks, Silverton is planning a downtown block party featuring live music, beer, food, games and concessions, she said. Regional popular country singer Hugh Phillips will take the main stage.<\/p>\n

\"A
A town meeting held Thursday afternoon was inconclusive about whether or not fireworks will be safe and feasible in Silverton on Independence Day. The town is preparing other family-friendly events, including a new block party the evening of July 4, to ensure the holiday is well celebrated, fireworks or not. (Durango Herald file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The block party is planned for the evening of the Fourth of July Gallegos said the town of Silverton hasn\u2019t held a block party with streets closed off for Independence Day in likely a decade.<\/p>\n

The Fourth of July is Silverton\u2019s single biggest economic event of the year, every year, whether it falls on a weekday or a weekend, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur streets are lined in full, our campgrounds are full, our occupancy in our hotels are maxed, VRBOs \u2013 we fill up as a community every year for the Fourth of July,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said it\u2019s hard to gauge just how many visitors the town receives or should expect, but every year, Silverton receives such an influx of visitors that its basic infrastructure such as water, sewer and trash can\u2019t handle the activity on its own.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to supplement that with porta potties and trash cans and dumpsters,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s how we know we have a very excessive, high amount of people for that weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given Durango has already canceled its fireworks show, Silverton is expecting visitors from as far away as Albuquerque and Grand Junction.<\/p>\n

\u201cSilverton is basically just a base camp to access the mountain, so we get all types of guests, all types of user groups who just curate their own experience by their own likes,\u201d Gallegos said.<\/p>\n

Other Fourth of July festivities include the Silverton Family Learning Center Pancake Breakfast in Silverton\u2019s Memorial Park; the annual Blue Ribbon 5K and 10K Fun Run; and a parade starting outside San Juan County Courthouse, with more planned.<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Town plans block party to ensure sparks will fly regardless of weather<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[1820,28,598,1562,327,1829,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-133071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-dh-trueanthem","tag-headlines","tag-public-holiday","tag-san-juan-county-colorado","tag-silverton","tag-tcr-trueanthem","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133071"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=133071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}