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(WWJ) The annual Detroit fireworks show will take place Monday, but do not head downtown hoping to catch a glimpse.
Promoting the 2020 Ford Detroit Fireworks as a "TV only" event due to the pandemic, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan says the fireworks will not be shot off within the city, but from somewhere in the suburbs.
Duggan says there won't be anything to see on the Detroit Riverfront.
"The fireworks are not occurring in the city of Detroit. The only place to see them is on TV," the mayor said a news conference Wednesday.
The purpose of the unprecedented change in plans is to avoid big crowds, and the resulting spread of COVID-19.
"The fireworks will not be visible from anywhere in the city," Duggan stressed. "If you come down to the river, there won't be any barges there, there won't be any fireworks there; it'll be 20 miles outside the city. So, please enjoy them on TV, but don't come down looking for them here."
The location outside the city will not be not be revealed to the public either, "because we don't want the community to have to deal with that," the mayor said.
Executives with the Parade Company say the program, on August 31 from 8-10 p.m. on WDIV Local 4, will honor frontline workers and heroes of the COVID-19 crisis.
The fireworks, originally scheduled for June, typically draw thousands of spectators to downtown Detroit. The Parade Company selects the musical arrangement and works with Zambelli Fireworks to stage more than 10,000 pyrotechnic effects.
The theme of the 62nd annual display is "We Are One Together."