Next year's Excelsior fireworks show will return to Excelsior

Next year, the Excelsior July 4th fireworks show will be held in … Excelsior.

After moving the show to nearby Deephaven at the request of anonymous donors who paid for this year's event, the Excelsior-Lake Minnetonka Chamber of Commerce announced Tuesday that in 2022, fireworks will return to Excelsior.

"We're just really excited for next year and the announcement that we were able to make today," said Jen Weiss, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, which organizes the event.

Earlier this year, the 2021 show was at risk of being scratched altogether for the second year in a row, after COVID-related restrictions forced the cancellation of an art fair and other events that normally raise money to pay for the fireworks.

Then in the spring, a group of anonymous donors stepped up and offered to pay for the show but asked that it be held on a barge off the Deephaven shoreline.

The Chamber accepted the offer and encouraged viewers to still gather in the Commons, Excelsior's 13-acre lakeside park, to watch the vibrant explosions from across the water.

In a typical year, police estimate, more than 10,000 viewers crowd into the city of about 2,500 residents for the event.

Some said they couldn't see it very well or at all. Weiss said it was quite visible but not audible. Others, including people who watched from boats or from different beaches, said their views were great.

"Judging from social media comments, some people had a better vantage point than maybe they've had in the past, and maybe some people didn't have such a good vantage point," said Jake Sturgis, president of the Excelsior Morning Rotary Club, which organizes events that help support the pyrotechnics.

Some grumbled that wealthy donors, presumably Deephaven residents, were allowed to move the event closer to their homes.

Others defended the arrangement, noting that the group's generosity allowed thousands to watch a show they didn't help pay for.

"I think this year was a wake-up call for a lot of people to understand the fireworks in Excelsior are not free," Sturgis said.