2010s to present
Macy's wanted to hold the 2011 fireworks display in Upper New York Bay as a tribute to the 125th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, and was given permission from the National Park Service to shoot off some of the fireworks from Liberty Island, but the proposed change in venue was nixed by city officials because they said Lower Manhattan wouldn't be able to handle the number of spectators.
In May 2013, for the first time in its history, organizers appointed a creative ambassador—R&B musician Usher—to develop the show's concept and soundtrack, which would carry the theme "It Begins with A Spark".[33] Usher explained that the show would reflect "who we are as Americans and who we have evolved to be throughout the years, both good and bad, up and downs", and be "a merge of old and new"; it would feature renditions of "The Star-Spangled Banner" by Jimi Hendrix and the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, and "America the Beautiful" by Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert (at the time, both Shelton and Usher were coaches on The Voice, a music competition series aired by fireworks broadcaster NBC), as well as popular music by Frank Sinatra, Kanye West, Kelly Clarkson, Rihanna, Sam Cooke, Swedish House Mafia, and Usher. While the soundtrack did receive mixed reviews by some critics for its reliance on pop music (including several of Usher's own hits in particular), Usher stated that he enjoyed "looking out over the crowd to see all those faces, people of different ages and races" throughout the show. The NBC telecast had its highest viewership in a decade.[34][35][36][37]
The display was moved back to the East River in 2014. That year, the Brooklyn Bridge was used to launch some of the fireworks for the show, which required the bridge to be shut down for part of the day.[38][39] In 2016, Macy's celebrated the event's 40th anniversary with a display featuring more than 56,000 effects, making it the largest show since 2000.[40]
Amid COVID-19 restrictions in 2020, the event was spread out over a week across each borough of New York City. To discourage large crowds from gathering, 5-minute-long shows were held in different locations, without prior announcement, including the East River, Hudson River, Statue of Liberty, Coney Island, One Times Square, and Bronx Borough Hall. The finale, on July 4, was televised and featured a display from atop the Empire State Building.[41][42] The traditional Macy's fireworks display on the Fourth of July returned as a public viewing event on the East River in 2021, with the NYPD separating spectators into different areas along the waterfront between those that had received the COVID-19 vaccine from those that were unvaccinated.[42] The 2021 display also included fireworks being simultaneously launched from the top of the Empire State Building.[43]
The event in 2023 was the first to include a drone light show, which immediately preceded the fireworks display. A total of 500 drones flying over the East River were used to create designs such as the U.S. flag and the Statue of Liberty.[44][45] On the day of the fireworks display, a team of researchers from NYU Langone Health assessed the effects of the fireworks on localized air pollution and water pollution. The results of their study showed a sharp rise in airborne particulates, with peak real-time measurements of PM2.5 exceeding 1,000 μg/m3 at three sampling sites within 30 minutes after the conclusion of the show, which took several hours to return to pre-event levels. These measurements compared to average background levels of 15 μg/m3 in New York City and a maximum of 460 μg/m3 experienced in the local area during the Canadian wildfires in June 2023. The study also found increased levels of heavy metals in the river water that lasted for one hour after the fireworks ended.[46][47]
The fireworks display returned to the Hudson River in 2024.[48] Compared to the East River, the Hudson River is wider and allows for the use of larger shells in the fireworks display, some of which are up to 10 in in diameter and weigh up to 30 lb.[49][50] The 2024 event included the first-ever use of pyro-drones in a public show in the United States; the use of fireworks on drones had only been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration a few weeks before the event.[51]
In 2025, the 49th edition of Macy's 4th of July fireworks display was launched from the Brooklyn Bridge and four barges on the East River near the South Street Seaport.[52] The fireworks show had 80,000 shells and included a new effect consisting of a 1,400 ft twinkling yellow waterfall that slowly fell from underneath the bridge. Prior to the event, new additions to the show were tested at a dry lake bed located in the Mojave Desert.[53]
