Independence Day returns to the Parkway, like a ‘family reunion for the whole city’

Revelers came to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on Monday afternoon to celebrate the Fourth of July because they finally could, after two years of pandemic restrictions, shutdowns, and virtual substitutes.

They wore red beads and white tank tops, along with the occasional powder-blue surgical mask. People danced, doused their heads with cold water, and propped their chairs up in the shade for a view of the night’s concert and fireworks. Most chose to focus on the here and now rather than the two years they lost hunkering down and trying to avoid a case of COVID-19.

“It feels pretty normal out here,” said Renee Greer, 31, of Brewerytown. “It feels really good to be out among other people without having to be masked.”

The celebration came to an abrupt and chaotic end shortly before 10 p.m. Monday when two police officers were shot during the fireworks near the Parkway. A Philadelphia highway patrol officer suffered a graze wound to the head, and an officer assigned to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department Bomb Squad was grazed in the right shoulder, Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said. Both officers were treated at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and released.

Thousands of people who were on the Parkway to enjoy the concert and fireworks reacted in panic and terror amid reports of the shooting: Hundreds fled from the Parkway in a current, while others ducked and hid.

» READ MORE: Live updates: Two police officers shot during Philadelphia's July Fourth celebration

The Wawa Welcome America Party on the Parkway included amusements, dozens of food trucks, games of chance, live music, and street performers, such as the Philly Surfers dance team, which breakdanced and did backflips on the street in front of a crowd of about a hundred people.

“It’s about bringing people together” said group member Antiwne “Prince” Freeman.

Many felt the same “return to normalcy” vibes.

“It almost feels like it did before COVID,” said Rachel Szychulski, who’d set up a blanket with her family under the Nicaraguan flag on the Parkway.

Although masks were few and far between, Kevin Vernia, 37, wore one around his neck while he and his son, Jeremy, sat in the shade outside the Rodin Museum.

“It’s definitely a little different, being out around so many people,” Vernia said. "I still wouldn’t be around this many people indoors.”

Michael Adams, a Center City dentist, propped three chairs against the metal barrier separating the public from the concert stage and private seating area. While musicians were rehearsing in the background, Adams had hours to go before the show started.

“My son really wanted to see Ava Max, so we got here early,” Adams said.

Adams, who grew up in Philadelphia and lives in Montgomery County, said he was still very concerned about COVID-19, and brought an N95 mask with him.

“I’ve worn an N95 mask every day for two years,” he said.

Recent gun violence in the city, including the fatal South Street shooting last month, also troubled him. There has been at least one incident of gun violence along the Parkway for Fourth of July in the last decade.

“With everything that’s been going on lately in the city, I was a little concerned,” he said. “But we came here in 2019 and everything was fine.”

Few people The Inquirer spoke to had learned about the mass shooting earlier in the day at a suburban Chicago Independence Day parade. Hundreds of Philadelphia police officers were stationed at every Parkway entrance, where security was checking backpacks. At around 2:30 p.m., about 30 officers on bicycles formed a blockade on the opposite end of the Parkway as a pro-choice rally that began near Independence Mall came to an end.

“It’s July Fourth. If women are not free, no one is free,” Sam Goldman, an organizer with Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights, chanted to the crowd.

Goldman urged the protesters, numbering in the hundreds, to meet in Love Park, saying they didn’t intend to disrupt the Parkway’s festivities.

In a children’s section of the Parkway, young dancers from Three Aksha, out of Girard College, performed a traditional Indian Bharatanatyam while a group called Dance 4 Life, from Delaware, saw a dozen girls pirouetting in the grass in red and blue sequined dresses.

“It’s been a long time, but we’re so glad to be back,” Dance 4 Life director Chante D. Andrews told the crowd

Rakim El-Amin, 60, of Wilmington, had arrived on the Parkway at 8 a.m. with his family and planned to stay straight through to the end of the fireworks. The key to making that happen, he said, was hydration.

“This is an exciting day for the city,” he said. “It feels like a family reunion out here, and it basically is for me, but it’s almost like a family reunion for the whole city, too, isn’t it?”

Staff writers Chris Palmer, Justine McDaniel, and Diane Mastrull contributed to this article.