City of St. Augustine to test run new crowd control at Fourth of July fireworks display

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — The City of St. Augustine is using their Fourth of July fireworks show as a test run for new crowd control measures.

The 2024 Nights of Lights display attracted the largest crowd the city had ever seen; now the city is working ahead to make adjustments before the lights display this year.

Read: City of St. Augustine asks St. Johns tourism council for $1.2M to fund Nights of Lights

Kaleb Odom is co-owner of DJ’s Clam Shack.

Odom said he and his restaurant staff are headed into their season of the city’s biggest annual events.

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“Foot traffic is insane. There’s just people everywhere, and for a business, especially a restaurant, you couldn’t ask for more,” Odom said.

Odom said the volume of traffic the events bring presents some challenges for him and his staff, though.

“All of my employees have some difficulties with finding spots in the garage, and obviously during Nights of Lights. For a typical 30-minute arrival time to get to work from, let’s just say Jacksonville, it turns into an hour and a half travel time to get to work. We have to do a lot of preparing, and everyone has to plan to be at work an hour early just to get here on time,” the business owner told us.

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The City of St. Augustine shared these plans for their Fourth of July fireworks:

• There will be an additional 134 public portable toilets placed in the parking lot at the corner of St. George Street and Cathedral Place as well as 20 portable public toilets being added near the Visitor Information Center. View the map here.
• Pedestrian barriers will be installed along Cathedral Place on the north side of the Plaza de la Constitución as a barricade, preventing pedestrians from crossing Cathedral Place in the middle of the block. Pedestrians will be required to cross at the intersection of Cathedral Place at St. George Street and Charlotte Street. It is important to note that Cathedral Place will be closed to vehicular traffic starting at 4:00 pm, between Avenida Menendez and Cordova Street.
• Meridian vehicle barricades will be placed at critical intersections in the historic downtown area to block vehicular access.
• Public Safety Assistance and St. Augustine Police officers will be stationed at critical intersections to direct pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
• The American Red Cross will be stationed at the intersection of Cathedral Place and Charlotte Street, near Anderson Circle, distributing water while supplies last and offering assistance as needed to passersby.
• The Broudy’s Lot, located at 198 W. King St., will be open for free parking from 5:00 pm until midnight; however, shuttles will not be available. The Broudy’s Lot is within walking distance to downtown, so those who choose to park there may walk to the historic downtown and bayfront.

Odom said he and his team are looking forward to changes to parking and public toilets.

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The business owner said that while the bathrooms in DJ’s Clam Shack are only open to his customers, he said he knows other restaurant owners who would benefit from the public toilets.

“Just primarily a lot of influx of people who are not customers coming in using restrooms, creating lines for the restrooms that are supposed to be primarily used by the customers. So I could assume that would be a big help to kind of push some of the volume elsewhere,” he said.

St. Augustine is also sharing these reminders ahead of the Fourth of July next week:

• Before you arrive, have an exit strategy.
• Plan to stay downtown after the fireworks display. Allow traffic and people to disperse.
• Be patient. Expect long delays when exiting downtown following the fireworks. It takes all day for people to arrive, and everyone tries to leave at the same time.
• The Historic Downtown Parking Facility is expected to reach capacity early and will be closed. There will be long exit lines when leaving the garage following the fireworks.

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