No Fireworks At Gas Works Park This Year

The group that puts on the Family 4th at Lake Union, Seattle's biggest Independence Day fireworks show, said there won't be fireworks at Gas Works Park this year.

The group One Reel said it's been unable to find a corporate sponsor for the event.

"For the past 15 months, One Reel has worked tirelessly to secure a title sponsor for the 2010 Family 4th at Lake Union but, regrettably, we were not able to secure one in time to proceed with this year’s event," wrote Tomoko Moriguchi Matsuno, President of the One Reel Board of Directors on the group's Web site.

"For that reason, it is with a heavy heart we announce there will be no fireworks or festivities at Gas Works Park this year," Matsuno wrote.

In recent years, Washington Mutual sponsored the WaMu Family 4th until the Seattle bank was taken over by Chase. Chase committed to sponsoring the Chase Family 4th for one year.

The cancellation of the event leaves the largest city in Washington state without a major fireworks show since Ivar's Seafood Restaurant discontinued its "4th of Jul-Ivar's" show after the 2008 program.

Ivar's announced in April 2009 that it would direct its resources instead toward feeding the hungry.

The 4th of Jul-Ivar's fireworks show started in 1964 at Green Lake when Seattle native and Ivar's "flounder" Ivar Haglund was given a last-minute chance to save the town's annual Seattle fireworks show from cancellation. Haglund paid for the entire show.