The Agenda: Fourth of July on Nantucket
Your complete guide to Independence Day on Nantucket, Saturday, July 4, 2026, which also marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence was signed.
The Fourth falls on a Saturday this year, which settles the scheduling question that sometimes complicates the holiday, and it arrives with a more weighted date attached to it than usual: 2026 marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence was signed, and the island’s Fourth has been built, this year, to acknowledge it. The result is a day with slightly more ceremony than the usual sandy, sunburnt affair, though that ends by mid-morning and the rest of the day proceeds exactly as it always has: beach, barbecue, bunting, and a good ol’ fashioned fireworks show.
What follows is the day, in order.
Saturday, July 4
8:30 AM – 12:30 PM: Sustainable Nantucket Farmers Market — Cambridge Street (between Federal and South Water Streets)
Ed. Note: The better option, this particular morning, than fighting crowds for breakfast seating. A calmer half-hour than what follows.
8:30 AM – 12:30 PM: Food Trucks — Federal Street (between Main and India Streets)
Ed. Note: Running the same window as the farmers market, one block over.
9:00 AM: Reading of the Declaration of Independence — St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (20 Fair Street)
Ed. Note: Now in its 27th year, and celebrating the country’s 250th anniversary year. Unticketed, roughly fifteen minutes. Arrive a few minutes early; the pews fill.
10:00 – 10:30 AM: USA 250 Nantucket High School Drumline Parade — Main Street
Ed. Note: Position yourself along Main Street early. The crowd builds fast once the farmers market, the food trucks, and the parade route overlap.
10:00 – 10:30 AM: P.J. Moody Sings the National Anthem & Other Patriotic Music — Children’s Beach Bandstand (Harbor View Way)
Ed. Note: A reminder that Moody appears twice on this schedule — once here, once again at 12:15 PM.
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM: Matt Fee Tea Toss & Cornhole Tournament — Children’s Beach Bandstand (Harbor View Way)
Ed. Note: The unofficial start of the beach half of the day. Spectating is free; entering the cornhole bracket requires only nerve.
10:45 – 11:15 AM: Community Band Performance — Main Street
Ed. Note: The gentler counterpart to the drumline an hour earlier, and a reasonable excuse to linger downtown before the water starts flying.
10:45 – 11:30 AM: Magic Mark — Children’s Beach Bandstand (Harbor View Way)
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM: Annual Water Contest — Main Street
Ed. Note: The Fire Department’s water fight, a Nantucket tradition older than most of its spectators, pitting crews against each other and, inevitably, against the crowd. This year’s contest was briefly in doubt amid drought conditions before a donated water supply—trucked in from off-island, with no draw on the town’s own supply—kept the tradition intact. Dress accordingly; bystander status is not guaranteed.
11:45 AM – 12:15 PM: Kids Music & Movement with Cory Morgan — Children’s Beach Bandstand (Harbor View Way)
12:15 – 12:45 PM: PJ Moody, Live Music — Children’s Beach Bandstand (Harbor View Way)
Around 12:20 PM: Children’s Bicycle Parade — Children’s Beach Bandstand (Harbor View Way)
Ed. Note: Decorate accordingly, if traveling with the relevant demographic. Ribbon and a bit of red, white, and blue crepe paper go a long way.
1:00 – 5:00 PM: Family & Friends Patio Barbecue — Café 22 (22 Federal Street)
Ed. Note: Grilling and face painting, for the adult contingent that has aged out of the bandstand’s programming but not out of the day itself.
Afternoon: Surfside Beach and Cisco Beach
Ed. Note: Both well outside the day’s official programming, and the default for anyone who wants sand and serenity over sand and speakers.
5:00 PM: Children’s Field Day — Children’s Beach (Harbor View Way)
Ed. Note: Three-legged race, wheelbarrow race, sack race, tug-of-war. One of the few American holidays that still produces an unironic tug-of-war, and worth witnessing on those grounds alone.
9:00 PM: Fireworks — Jetties Beach (4 Bathing Beach Road)
Ed. Note: Shot from a barge just offshore, running roughly 25 to 27 minutes—long by the standard of most town displays, and reliably the best-attended single event on the island’s calendar. A blanket claimed by 7:00 PM buys considerably more comfort than one claimed at 8:45.
10:00 PM: Smallpools — The Muse (44 Surfside Road)
Ed. Note: The indie-pop band returns to Nantucket for what the venue is billing as an Independence Day party, at the 375-person room that has spent this summer punching well above its size. Ticketed, 21 and older.
Late: 7 Day Weekend — The Chicken Box (14 Dave Street)
Before You Go
NRTA’s Wave buses run a dedicated shuttle to Jetties Beach from in front of the Whaling Museum (13 Broad Street) starting at 6:00 PM, departing every ten to fifteen minutes, with return service running until 10:30 PM. Take it. Parking at Jetties on the Fourth is a known aggravation, and the shuttle removes the only genuinely stressful part of the evening.
For a fireworks view without the sand, the Dreamland’s second floor (17 S Water Street) runs live music and a full barbecue buffet with a distant, weather-permitting view of the display over Jetties Beach. A handful of harborfront operators also offer fireworks viewing by private charter, for parties who would rather watch from the water than the beach.
Independence Day events run all day Saturday, July 4, 2026 on Nantucket. Nearly all programming is free and open to the public. The reading of the Declaration of Independence takes place at St. Paul's Episcopal Church at 9:00 AM; fireworks begin at Jetties Beach at 9:00 PM.