Lookout Staff

June 29, 2012 -- In what has become a holiday tradition, Santa Monica will celebrate Independence Day early with a fireworks display Saturday.

Santa Monica College's 30th Anniversary "Celebrate America" -- the popular outdoor festival -- is free but donations are welcome. The gates to Corsair Field at 16th Street and Pico Boulevard will open at 7 p.m. and the Derek Bordeaux Group will kick in with some rhythm-and-blues at 7:30 p.m.

The only celebration of its kind in Santa Monica, "Celebrate America" will feature a spectacular fireworks show and entertainment by the rock 'n blues sounds of Chris Mulkey n’ Deluxe, a regular at the House of Blues on Sunset.

The festivities will also feature community service booths, food trucks and food booths operated by the Boy Scouts, Boys and Girls Club of Santa Monica and the SMC Athletics Department.

Picnicking is welcome, but alcoholic beverages, glass containers, barbecues, fireworks and chairs with pointed legs are prohibited.

The college's fireworks display, which usually take place before the Fourth of July, became Santa Monica's official Independence Day celebration after the City Council in 1992 decided to shelve the City's fireworks festivities.

The move to drop the displays came after a City plan to hold a "Dawn's Early Light" celebration at 4:45 a.m. near the Santa Monica Pier drew 250,000 people in 1991 and necessitated full deployment of police and fire forces for two days.

This year's event is taking place five days before Congress, on July 4, 1776, would formally endorse Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, with copies to be sent to all of the colonies. But the actual signing of the document didn’t take place until August 2.