Are the Marblehead Fireworks the best in the country? As a Photographer my vote would be yes. Boston may have bigger displays as well as New York, but for such a tiny harbor (comparatively) I think it more than competes with larger venues.

To start off with there is so much to do during this time in Marblehead. The town always has a multi-day (town wide) Arts Festival that will coincide with the fireworks, so if you want a family friendly event to attend, then this should be top of your list of things to see and do.

As you can see from Crocker Park here, the festival energy fills the town during the day, but it also means the battle for fireworks real estate starts early. Local tip: people “mark their spots” by leaving blankets and chairs on the hills hours in advance so they don’t have to sit there all day.

It generally goes on for four days each July and there are art exhibits from one end of the town to the other. There are parades and things aimed at the younger crowd as well. Go to Marblehead Festival of the Arts schedule and look for the schedule tab and hit load more…

BUT! This is about the Marblehead Fireworks!

There will be a canon fired at about 8:45pm which is the signal to light the flares, Why flares you ask? Because before you get Fireworks… We have the

Marblehead Harbor Illumination

I was speechless the first time I saw this and I made a practice of choosing a different location each year. It goes without saying that the red flares against the dark shore and the blue sky/harbor water makes it hard for Boston to compete with this.

From Fort Sewall on one side of the harbor around to Chandler Hovey Park and the Marblehead Lighthouse on the other, after the canon shot is heard every body lights their flares at the same time.

Photographer’s Field Notes * The Illumination Window: The canon shot you heard means you have roughly 15 minutes to get your shots of the harbor illumination before the fireworks begin.

Marblehead Fireworks Locations to Choose From

Photographer’s Field Notes * Navigating Old Town: Here is the first “Con” you need to know about. This town, like many historic New England coastal hubs, was laid out by a drunken cow… They have little parking so you need to plan ahead. Check my article on the skeletal Guardian of Marblehead Harbor. Jump straight down the page to “parking strategy”, also check this page which lists all the parking for this year. Here is the Parking notes from the Marblehead Police.

Parking isn’t too bad IF… you get there early (before 9AM) in the day and once you are there plan to be there till after the fireworks. Make sure you are parking in a “legal” parking spot because you might come back from the fireworks and find your car gone! They have parking at several locations like the high school so if you don’t want to get there early have comfortable shoes and plan to walk about 10-15 minutes to get downtown.

Also once the fireworks are over, just sit and relax because there are thousands of people heading for their cars and I would plan on sitting where you are for 30 minutes and then, slowly walk back to your car.

Crocker Park

As you can see from the image above, it pays to get there early, park and drop off blankets, chairs and what not. This is what the locals do and it is allowed. The view is very nice from here but limited in that you are looking up the harbor to get a clear photographic image of the fireworks and the lighthouse.

Photographer’s Field Notes *: there is a VERY tempting parking lot right behind Crosby’s Market next to Crocker Park, but this is only for patrons of the market. I don’t know if you will get towed but I wouldn’t want to take a chance.

Old Burial Hill Cemetery

*Pro: This location is more of a secret, I actually scouted this spot back in 2005. If it wasn’t elevated on a hill, it would be useless. But it allows you to find a spot that only the locals who live around the hill know about. In general you are looking out across Fort Sewall at Marblehead’s Lighthouse. But you are also away from downtown. No music, no vendors, so bring your own food and drinks. If you choose to mark your spot, you are 5-7 minutes from all that other stuff.

Photographer’s Field Notes * Gear Selection: For this location, I shot with a 28-135mm lens. It worked well for zooming in on the lighthouse, but it was almost not wide enough to get the lighthouse AND the full width of the bursts. Bring a medium telephoto and a wide-angle to cover all your bases

*Con: Parking is really limited, and right at the corner of Orne St. and Pond Rd. you will find Just a couple spots and if someone is there then you will spend the morning driving to get a spot. Did I mention how tough parking is? View this live view google map). Also your view of the harbor illumination is obscured a little by houses.

Fort Beach

*Pro: You are directly across from the Lighthouse and the Marblehead fireworks barge is just outside the harbor and in view depending on where you stand.

You have several choices of where to photograph from. (Depending of what the tides are doing)
1. You can stay up on the sidewalk (gets crowded by all the locals and visitors walking from downtown).
2. You can go down the steps onto the sand and rocks BUT! *make sure you check the tides! I was up on a giant rock and could have been stranded if I didn’t pay attention to the tide coming back in.

*Con: Do you like people in your shots? In the first shot you can see no one was on the rocks between me on the sidewalk and the lighthouse. That was 8 PM and the tide was heading out. By 8:57 PM [pic 2] the crowd was spilling down onto the sand and once the Marblehead fireworks started people had waded out onto the rocks and clearly in all my shots of the lighthouse and fireworks. Having people will work for certain uses like selling to magazines.

Fort Sewall

You are just up the road from Fort Beach. This is about as close to the lighthouse as you can get without being on a boat in the harbor or sitting at the foot of the lighthouse in Chandler Hovey Park (more on this later).

Pros: A clear unobstructed view of the lighthouse, Benches to sit on if you don’t bring your own chairs (but I’m not sure if people will respect a blanket on the bench as your marker. I did this in 2022 and we put our chairs on the rocks so we had no one in our way (we planted our chairs at 3:15 which means we had nothing to do for the next 5 hours. They have 2 bathrooms (not porta-potties) and that is a winner for me.

*Cons: Sitting on the rocks is uncomfortable to say the least. Explosions are very loud from here so no dogs should be brought. Young children also might be scared. It also is like being OUT on the water and while it is 80 degrees a mile away in town, it’s a good 10 degrees cooler here on this point of land and by night fall you will be wanting a light jacket.

List of the other locations not chosen

Yacht Clubs

Yacht Clubs are private so unless you are a member or own a boat and get a guest pass, or have a friend who invites you, its a hard pass…

Seaside Cliffs (behind home plate), Riverhead Beach, and the Causeway

Pro’s: For these three locations, you have a long view down both sides of the harbor but for those with only a cell phone, you might want to get closer. I used a 28-135 zoom lens this year (2006) and this shot was only zoomed into 80mm so you don’t need LONG glass (200-400) especially if you want the lighthouse and the fireworks. Parking is a bit easier but they charge down at the beach.

As you can see this was a foggy evening and we even had a small bit of rain. But even with the fog I was able to make some really nice shots but the best ones were with the red or white explosions.

*Cons: Not many I can think of except you are farther away from the explosions (more off in the distance bangs versus ear ringing explosions) and at that distance, smoke drift can be a major factor. If there is a light breeze blowing from the mouth of the harbor back toward the Causeway, the smoke from the first few volleys will stack up right in your line of sight.

Considerations for the end of the harbor

Also angle of View: Unlike Crocker Park or Fort Sewall where you are looking slightly up or directly at the action, you are shooting lower to the water line here, meaning you’ll need to keep an eye on mast lines from the moored boats clipping into the lower part of your bursts.

Shooting from the Marblehead Causeway—specifically around Riverhead Beach or pulling up along the harbor side—is a great choice for a long-distance perspective.

Because the fireworks barge is typically anchored out in the main harbor closer to the mouth, setting up your tripod along the Causeway gives you a unique compositional advantage.

Chandler Hoovey Park

I don’t really recommend Chandler Hovey Park because it is difficult to get the lighthouse AND the Marblehead Fireworks both in the same shot. To be honest I never shot the fireworks from the park but I was invited but a resident who lives 2 houses away from the park and I shot from their balcony and Lisa and I had this view to ourselves.

My setup: I was using my 24-105mm L IS lens and this is only at 35mm so I assume that if you are in the Park you will have a challenge to get the lighthouse in the shot with a wide angle lens. The problem would be the lens distortion and the lighthouse will be bent over and this will be difficult to correct. If you have a tilt shift lens then you should have an easier time of it.

Final Considerations for the Marblehead Fireworks

I see two main difficulties, Parking and choosing where you want to shoot from.

For drone pilots: In 2022 and 2023 I launched my drone and while this is frowned upon by the powers to be, as long as you follow the rules there is little to fear. There are three rules you need to follow. 1. VLOS (Visual Line Of Sight) keeping your eyes on your drone, 2, No flying over people and the edge of the harbor is lined with people so you have to find an entry point. 3. I would call the harbor an official assembly so all the boats become a no fly over area.

You can disagree with me but I’m giving you my opinion, and people breaking these rules are what gets more rules added to our do not be that guy list! If you have to fly your drone look up little harbor Lobster company (yes you can get a Killah lobster roll there) They have a small parking lot BUT!!! you can’t park there till after they close!

If you launch from there you can see the lighthouse in the distance and you can safely fly outside the harbor filming both sides of the harbor illumination and if you stand off a ways you will get incredible shots of the fireworks as well. Unless fog happens! In 2023 only a few people got to see the firewoks because there was a fog deck out over the water where the explosions were taking place.

The fog wasn’t where I was at Little Harbor so I hovered directly above my position with stars overhead and no fog. I found that at 125 feet above, I could use my long zoom lens on my Mavic 3 Pro and film the explosions that lit the fog up in ethereal ways.

I hope you find this of use if you decide to visit the Marblehead Fireworks this year.

---

---