FOURTH OF JULY 2026: Here’s where Seattle Parks will leave the lights on longer

| Holidays | Safety | West Seattle news

(2024 reader photo of fireworks damage on Nino Cantu SW Athletic Complex turf)

Here’s the annual announcement from Seattle Parks – we’ve excised the non-local parks:

Seattle Parks and Recreation will turn on field lighting on ballfields throughout the city on the evening of Friday, July 3 and Saturday, July 4 to protect the surfaces. The ballfield lights will be turned on at approximately 9 PM.

The lights will be turned on to discourage the use of fireworks. Fireworks are illegal in the city of Seattle and will destroy the artificial turf on the fields or surrounding facilities. The approximate replacement cost for the synthetic surface based on per average full-size field (110,000 square feet) is $1.2 million. All the fields have been renovated in the past several years and benefit field users including soccer, football, baseball, ultimate frisbee and lacrosse.

The fields will be monitored from 9 PM to 3 AM

Lights at the following synthetic fields will be turned off at 3 AM on July 3 and 4:

Delridge Playfield, 4458 Delridge Way SW
Hiawatha Playfield, 2700 California Ave. SW
South Park Playfield, 8319 8th Ave S
Walt Hundley Playfield, 6920 34th Avenue SW

Lights will be turned off at the following grass fields at 11 PM on July 3 and 4:

West Seattle Stadium, 4432 35th Ave. SW

Comparing this to last year’s announcement, the lights will be on longer the night before the 4th, and the “monitoring” will be an hour later.

Resident July 2, 2026 (5:54 am)

The Denny parking lot is ALWAYS ground zero for 4th explosions. Not sure why it’s not closed or has more patrols – it’s literally down the street from SPD

WS98 July 2, 2026 (8:47 am)

@WSB, thank you for this info! Do you know why Madison MS (new turf) is not on the list?

WSB July 2, 2026 (10:57 am)

Reply

This list only covers city-owned parks. Madison is a Seattle Public Schools facility. They’ve told us in the past that security is monitoring their fields but they haven’t typically put out lists like this.

Leslie July 2, 2026 (8:59 am)

@ Resident – completely agree & significant damage over the years…

At long last – it’s progress but having trouble understanding why it has taken this long. Shades of Lincoln Park’s South play area ….

MyThruppence July 2, 2026 (10:01 am)

Yes. I agree Resident. The jerks setting them off in that lot after midnight (at 3:00am recently) should be ticketed and fined heavily for their unfathomably inconsiderate behavior. People have to freaking work, A-holes.

Daddio July 2, 2026 (12:50 pm)

So, basically, the city is helping the scofflaws see the fuses of their gigantic fireworks better.

Sarchka July 2, 2026 (1:15 pm)

Unfortunately, I’d be willing to bet the usual idiots would be happy to locate there at 3am when the lights turn off.Denny parking lot is no doubt the sacrificial lamb, as a “less bad” place for idiots to be.

1994 July 2, 2026 (10:28 pm)

The sellers of the noise makers should be required to provide a space near by for their product to be enjoyed by those who purchase the stuff. This noise stuff is not about freedom but rather it seems to be more about annoying as many people as possible.

anonyme July 3, 2026 (2:36 pm)

Catching these idiots should be like shooting ducks in a barrel. Simply place an officer at each exit of the playfield and hit every single one of them with the maximum fine of $5,000. That would more than pay for the police work involved. The problem is that the police are part of the problem. I’ve seen them carefully drive around a massive fireworks operation blocking a street, give the perp a salute, and keep on driving. Illegal fireworks have nothing whatever to do with the Fourth of July, and everything to do with empty-headed jerks wanting to blow stuff up. I doubt that they are even capable of reading the Constitution, much less understanding it. What’s really criminal is that our so-called representatives in local government do absolutely nothing to protect citizens from this annual atrocity.