Baltimore’s July 4 celebration will include a tribute to the Francis Scott Key Bridge and the six workers who lost their lives when it collapsed.
The tribute will come during a 15-minute drone and fireworks show that will start at the Inner Harbor at 9:30 p.m., the final event in a day of activities marking Independence Day in downtown Baltimore.
Produced by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts (BOPA), the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the City of Baltimore, the event will be the first time a drone show has been added to Baltimore’s traditional fireworks display on the Fourth of July. BOPA first put on a combination drone and fireworks display last New Year’s Eve.
A drone show is an aerial display that uses synchronized drones, each fitted with LED (Light Emitting Diode) lights, to create words or images that can tell a story.
Rachel Graham, the CEO of BOPA, told members of Baltimore’s Board of Estimates on Wednesday that the July 4 light show will include a tribute to the Key bridge, which collapsed on March 26 after the Singapore-flagged container ship Dali struck a support pier. Six men who were working on the bridge died as a result and the Port of Baltimore was closed for weeks as the debris was cleared from the shipping channel.
The light show “will reflect on the past as well as the current,” Graham told the board members. “We will present a tasteful tribute to the collapse of the bridge. We feel it is important to really acknowledge the contribution of the workers that were lost as well as the role that bridge played in our economy.”
Graham addressed the Board of Estimates because the Mayor’s Office had asked its members to approve a new one-year contract that authorizes the agency to continue serving as the city’s events producer, arts council and film office beyond June 30, when its current contract with the city expires. After hearing from Graham and Deputy Mayor Justin Williams, the board voted 5 to 0 to approve the new contract, which will run from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025.
The meeting marked the first time that details of BOPA’s new contract were made public. Its language essentially authorizes the independent organization to continue the work it has been doing for more than a decade under contract to the city, starting with the production of events such as Artscape, the Baltimore Book Festival, the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade and the fireworks displays.
The contract also contains language that gives city officials increased ability to oversee BOPA’s operations and step in if the agency fails to carry out the work the city expects it to do. For fiscal 2025, the city has budgeted more than $2.7 million in taxpayer funds to support BOPA’s operations.
The oversight language was added because BOPA failed to put on a number of events that it received funds to produce during the tenure of former CEO Donna Drew Sawyer, who resigned in January of 2023 after Mayor Brandon Scott said he lost confidence in her ability to lead the agency. Graham has been CEO since March 15, 2024, and BOPA’s board of directors has been reconstituted.
Examples of language not in the city’s previous contract with BOPA are:
- A requirement that BOPA produce comprehensive quarterly reports documenting its activities and accomplishments, in order to receive funding for its operations. Funds will be disbursed quarterly, rather than one allocation for the year as before.
- A stipulation that at least three seats on BOPA’s board of directors be filled by city officials. The current contract did require that city officials be on the board.
- A statement that BOPA’s leaders acknowledge that the City of Baltimore owns the Artscape trademark. The language was added because Sawyer had attempted to trademark the Artscape name and make BOPA the owner, an effort that city attorneys considered attempted theft of intellectual property and later squelched.
- A statement that the city reserves the right to revoke BOPA’s designation as the city’s arts council, and provider of staff support to Baltimore’s Public Art Commission, at any time. The clause wasn’t part of previous contracts. It was added to give city officials options enabling them to continue supporting the arts and local artists in the event BOPA doesn’t meet their expectations.
“We don’t expect any problems with Ms. Graham’s leadership and the new board…but we want to have the protection,” Williams told the Board of Estimates.
“We’re all about collaboration under my leadership,” Graham told the board.
Artscape update
During a meeting of BOPA’s interim board of directors later on Wednesday morning, Graham said she is looking forward to working with the city. She told the board that Scott rarely makes a motion to approve a contract at Board of Estimates meetings but he did so in BOPA’s case.
Graham gave the board members an update on plans for the Artscape, which is scheduled to take place on Aug. 2, 3 and 4 in the Mount Royal and Station North arts districts.
This will be the 40th edition of Artscape, which started in 1982 but missed three years when Sawyer was BOPA’s CEO.
Graham said a number of popular programs and installations will return, including the popular “Blinkatorium” exhibit and performance space on Charles Street and Project Artscape, a series of fashion shows inspired by “Project Runway” on television.
“Project Artscape has become this amazing thing a lot of people are excited about,” she said. “Twelve designers are being mentored right now. Phenomenal, phenomenal folks.”
As of Wednesday, she said, 101 artists have signed up to be in the Artists’ Market section of Artscape and 52 food and beverage providers have signed up.
Graham said Mount Royal Station and Brown Center at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) will be available for use this year – a contrast to last year when classes were in session at MICA because the festival was held in September. She said she thinks the Brown Center’s auditorium will be an ideal location for dance programming during Artscape.
Other news: Two of Baltimore’s sister cities, Luxor in Egypt and Odesa in Ukraine, have asked for exhibit space at Artscape. The Billie Holiday Institute plans to bring a traveling exhibition. There will be an Artscape Ball. Main Stage headliners have been selected for Aug. 3 and 4, and organizers are working to name a Main Stage headliner for Aug. 2, Artscape’s opening night. The former YNot Lot at the northwest corner of North Avenue and Charles Street will be activated by the Central Baltimore Partnership. And something of a first for Artscape: Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport will be a sponsor “in a major way” this year.
“Any other festival I’ve worked with, you always talk to the tourism bureau both for the state and the city, and you always talk to your airport, because if you can promote this as a tourist attraction, you’ve got to come to the airport to get here, so we’re very excited about that,” Graham said.
More information about the three-day festival is available at Artscape.org.
July 4 details:
On July 4, activities around the harbor will go from 3 p.m. until the light show ends around 10 p.m.
At 3 p.m., the Waterfront Partnership kicks off the day’s programming with a picnic at West Shore Park that lasts until 9 p.m. A variety of local food trucks and vendors will be there.
At 6 p.m., DJ C. James will start playing family-friendly jams at the Inner Harbor Amphitheater. Avenue 66, a 10-piece variety cover band, takes the stage from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Around 7:15 p.m., Mayor Scott will make his customary arrival by kayak to deliver remarks at Rash Field Park. At approximately 8 p.m. the BSO’s Star Spangled Celebration concert will begin Rash Field, with Nicholas Hersh as conductor. Presented by PNC Bank, the concert will feature a diverse selection of patriotic music leading up to the fireworks. The program includes works by Leonard Bernstein, Paul Simon, Jessie Montgomery, and Tchaikovsky, along with a performance by hip hop and spoken word artist Wordsmith.
The fireworks and drone show that begins at 9:30 p.m. will last approximately 15 minutes, with accompaniment by the BSO. Following the debut of drones at the city’s 2023 New Year’s Eve Spectacular, BOPA has renewed its partnership with Image Engineering, a global events company that specializes in laser entertainment and is based in Baltimore’s Curtis Bay neighborhood.
As with New Year’s Eve, fireworks will launch from a barge in the Inner Harbor, donated by Vane Brothers. The drone fleet will take off from the Pier Six Pavilion and will include 250 drones, compared to the 150 drones used for the New Year’s Eve show.
So that as many people as possible can experience the multimedia light show accompanied live by the music of the BSO, organizers say, the Fourth of July Celebration will be amplified all along the Inner Harbor promenade, from Harborplace to Federal Hill.
“This year’s Fourth of July Celebration is a testament of music’s power in bringing our community together,” said BSO President and CEO Mark Hanson, in a statement. “We are excited to once again offer a free, vibrant musical experience for all residents and visitors to enjoy at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The Star-Spangled Celebration underscores our commitment to making high-quality orchestral music accessible to everyone and celebrating the unity and joy it brings to our city.
Here is the text of the contract between BOPA and the city that was approved on June 26:
