Fireworks will light the skies over Athens on Labor Day weekend.
City officials announced Friday that their postponed Fourth of July fireworks show would now take place on September 1 at 8:30 pm at Athens Regional Park.
The city was one of several in the area that elected not to hold their annual Independence Day celebrations because of the extremely dry weather. The week before the show was set to go off, a lawnmower blade hitting a rock sparked a blaze in the park, so city officials decided it would not be safe to light the fireworks.
"I really appreciate everyone understanding the reason that we postponed our show," said Austin Fesmire, Director of Parks and Recreation. "As we learned, the risk of fire became a reality for us on two occasions. Now that we are blessed with some rain I am very pleased to announce that we were able to reschedule the show on Labor Day weekend. Tennessee plays football on Friday, and Boomsday in Knoxville is on Sunday so we had an open day in between two major events. Since sunset is earlier we have also moved the show up and hour to 8:30pm so it should be a great evening. I anticipate a tremendous crowd since we are the only event that evening," said Fesmire.