The Melaleuca Freedom Celebration at Snake River Landing fully intends to go out with a big bang July 4 in Idaho Falls.
“We’re announcing that this will be the last year,” said Frank VanderSloot, Melaleuca executive chairman, during a press conference Thursday in the atrium at Melaleuca Global Headquarters. “We’ve lost our venue.”
The Melaleuca Freedom Celebration and Riverfest are expected to end after this July 4 unless a new venue becomes available.
The property is owned and developed by Ball Ventures, an Idaho Falls-based real estate investment and development firm founded by local businessman Allen Ball. Ball Ventures manages the 450-acre mixed-use Snake River Landing development, which spans from Pancheri Drive south to Sunnyside Road along the Snake River.
VanderSloot said Ball Ventures has decided to develop the property.
“Unfortunately the property that has been used for the event is now being developed into housing and industry,” he said. “I would defend their right to develop it. It’s their property. We’re really grateful for the fact that they’ve made this available to us.”
Ball Ventures originally committed to donating Snake River Landing property for five years and ended up stretching it to 10 years.
“We give a big ‘thank you’ to Ball Ventures for providing a beautiful venue that allowed the community to gather for memorable Fourth of July fireworks displays over the past decade,” VanderSloot said. “There is no other site in the nation that is like that anywhere. You need huge open spaces to produce a large show of this scale for both safety and audience size. A venue like this is just not yet available in Bonneville County.”
He continued, “We’re being told the parking is gone. So this is gonna be our last year for the foreseeable future.”
Finding another venue of comparable size to Snake River Landing is uncertain.
“I’m optimistic that it’s a very possible project that the community could take on,” VanderSloot said. “I can’t speak for the community as to what their interests would be in that.”
Creating or preparing such a venue would require significant public investment.
“We are guessing it might take a few years and several million dollars to develop,” VanderSloot said. “We will work with the community to find solutions.”
If the community or others make another suitable venue available, VanderSloot said Melaleuca would gladly provide the fireworks show.
“It is so hard for me to believe that this wonderful tradition is going to end,” VanderSloot said. “Like other families, it has become a significant yearly tradition for our family and for our company. I have loved every minute of it. I want to thank the Idaho Falls community for their tremendous support for the past 33 years.”
But this won’t be the last year for a July 4th fireworks show in Idaho Falls.
After the press conference, Mayor Lisa Burtenshaw said next year’s show will be held at Johns Hole boat dock along the banks of the Snake River.
“It’ll be a smaller fireworks show but stretched along from Freeman Park,” she said. “People in the past have sat in Freeman Park and the neighborhoods around the downtown area (to watch the July 4 fireworks).”
The boat dock previously hosted the city’s major fireworks show for 25 years. However in 2017, organizers relocated the event two miles south to Snake River Landing due to the growth of nearby trees and surrounding buildings, which restricted the size of the aerial displays.
The Melaleuca Freedom Celebration has a history of moving when necessary. It began at Ravsten Stadium, later moved to Johns Hole boat dock and finally to Snake River Landing.
VanderSloot’s focus is now on possibly the last Melaleuca July 4 celebration to be held.
“It’s about our nation’s birthday,” he said. “We’re celebrating 250 years. The Melaleuca Freedom Celebration is going to be the largest ever. It is the largest fireworks display west of the Mississippi River and the fifth largest in the nation. This is our 33rd year. It would be our 34th year except we skipped COVID.”
The celebration will begin at 10:03 p.m. Saturday, July 4, he said.
This year’s show will feature 18,915 shells in the air, making it the biggest fireworks display in Idaho’s history. It will average more than 610 fireworks per minute or more than 10 fireworks every second.
Each year attendance has grown requiring a venue like Snake River Landing to safely accommodate the large crowds, thousands of vehicles and the safety zone needed for fireworks.
It also requires high-capacity roadways, traffic management and event infrastructure capable of supporting a crowd that police have estimated at more than 220,000 spectators.
Original article on Rexburg Standard Journal.
