The closure this summer of Oak Harbor’s Windjammer Park will mean some changes are necessary in the city’s annual Fourth of July celebration.

The carnival will be in the field on the corner of Bayshore Drive and Pioneer Way.

Children’s games will be in Smith Park.

The beer garden will be in Flintstone Park.

And the fireworks will fly higher this year. In fact, it will be the “tallest show ever.”

Christine Cribb, executive director of the Oak Harbor Chamber of Commerce, explained that the fireworks for the annual show will soar as high as 800 feet above the water this year. In the past, the mortars went 300 to 500 feet in the air, she said.

“Being taller, more areas of Oak Harbor will be able to see them,” she said.

Cribb said the reason for the change is that the waterfront park is closed for reconstruction after being torn up for the sewage treatment plant project. People normally crowd into the park to watch the fireworks, but now they’ll have to find other places to view the spectacular spectacle.

When crowds were in the park, she explained, the fireworks couldn’t fly up too high in order to limit the “fallout zone” of the pyrotechnics. With nobody in the park, the whole area can be the fallout zone, she said.

She suggested that people can watch the show from places like the downtown ball fields, Skagit Valley College, the marina or Flintstone Park.

The fireworks begin at 10:30 p.m. They are sponsored by Whidbey Coffee and the chamber of commerce.

No changes are planned for the Fourth of July parade, which is sponsored by the chamber of commerce and the Rotary Club of Oak Harbor. Beginning at 11 a.m., it will travel down Bayshore Drive and end on Pioneer Way.

Island County Sheriff Mark Brown is this year’s grand marshal. He is retiring at the end of the year after 44 years in law enforcement and 12 years as sheriff, which is one of the longest terms in county history.

“I am extremely humbled and extremely honored,” he said.

The honor is especially fitting for Brown, who has been a regular in parades and other public events across the county during his tenure.

“I’ve always felt it’s extremely important for elected sheriffs to do what they can to make sure people know who they are and that they’re available and willing to listen,” he said.

RE/MAX Acorn Properties will be handing out 10,000 flags during the parade.

Kids’ games are in Smith Park from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. There will be games, cotton candy, glow sticks, a wood-carving demonstration as well as pie and watermelon-eating contests.

The beer garden in Flintstone Park will be open from 1 to 11 p.m. Whidbey Island Rollergirls will be serving beer from Flyers Brewery.

The street fair will run from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Pioneer Way. There will be a wide range of food, including pizza, gyros, kettle corn, lumpia, barbecue, ice cream, funnel cakes and lemonade. The arts-and-crafts vendors range from jewelry makers to face painting to an oxygen bar, which is new this year.

The carnival began Friday and will run through the Fourth of July.

Independence Day celebrations begin in Oak Harbor at 7:30 a.m. Oak Harbor Rotary is sponsoring a pancake breakfast at First United Methodist Church.

Photo by Jessie Stensland/ Whidbey News-Times Island County Sheriff Mark Brown is grand marshal in this year’s Fourth of July Parade.