Competing celebrations

Stefanie Weiss remembers when Washington’s Metrorail system opened in 1976. It consisted of just five stations, but for Weiss, who was 18 at the time, it meant independence, and the chance to visit the Smithsonian with her sister.

That year also marked America’s 200th birthday, and Weiss’ family took the Metro to catch the fireworks on the National Mall before she headed off to college.

“We felt lucky to live in Washington, where all this stuff was happening,” she said.

But this year, Weiss won’t attend celebrations for America’s 250th in the D.C. area. Instead, she’s headed to Maine to celebrate a family birthday.

“Washington has become a source of chaos on a daily basis,” Weiss said. “It doesn’t feel like we’re all celebrating the same things.”

That’s partly due to competing event planners vying for America’s attention.

Until last year, only one committee managed the 250th planning efforts—America 250. Appointed by Congress in 2016, the bipartisan commission had a simple task: arrange local events to commemorate the 250th across the country. For example, the group organized a time capsule to be buried in Philadelphia, set to be unearthed in 250 years.

But internal strife marred the group’s work. Last September, America 250 fired its executive director, Ariel Abergel, for alleged security breaches involving the commission’s social media account, and trying to push other commissioners to resign. And the time capsule project proved more costly and complicated than planners had expected.

Then in 2025, President Donald Trump created Freedom 250, which diverted attention toward splashier D.C.-based events like the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary parade in June 2025, a Sunday worship and prayer rally in May 2026, and a series of Ultimate Fighting Championship matches on the White House lawn in June. An IndyCar street race through downtown D.C. is scheduled for August.

Freedom 250’s efforts also meant less money for America 250.

Both planning committees operate using a mixture of private donations and public funds. When Congress appropriated $150 million for festivities, only America 250 was planning events. But now, both groups have been requesting government money, according to The Wall Street Journal. Both have also had to compete for corporate sponsorships.

All of which has left some Washingtonians a bit confused about how to actually celebrate. City officials have promoted events like the Great American State Fair, and a new museum underneath the Lincoln Memorial. Locals told me they’re disappointed that some of the events the president touted lacked the pageantry, patriotism, and polish of celebrations past.

​​“There were no UFC fights at the White House in 1976,” noted Jonathan Den Hartog, professor of history at Samford University. “The distinction would be, are you celebrating the memory or are you just celebrating the present?”

Den Hartog said the 1976 celebrations were successful because the organizers brought the past into the present.

He pointed to one of the most memorable bicentennial symbols of the 1970s—the Freedom Train, a 26-car traveling museum that showcased artifacts and official documents from America’s past, including an original copy of the Louisiana Purchase. Millions saw the display as it toured 48 states and traveled 25,000 miles.

Photos and local newsletters from 1976 also show that the bicentennial did more than just celebrate America’s history. In the case of Alexandria, Va., it revitalized an entire city.

Dan Lee, Alexandria’s city historian, said the area had been in decline in the 1960s. But in 1969, the Bicentennial Commission took an interest in Alexandria’s past and purchased several properties. By 1976, they were reopened as gathering spaces, museums, or historic sites. Fifty years later, Alexandria celebrated America’s 250th with an outdoor jazz festival and tall ships on its waterfront.

“Our understanding of Old Town Alexandria now is very much shaped by the urban renewal that happened in the late ’60s,” Lee said.

Other towns in the D.C. area did not see such a dramatic change, but historical and eyewitness accounts suggest that Americans made a much bigger deal of the bicentennial than this year’s semiquincentennial.

Ninety-year-old June Lassman, a longtime resident of Vienna, Va., remembers it was hard to avoid anything with a bicentennial label. She bought cookie tins, tea bag canisters, and beer bottles. “They were going whole hog on everything bicentennial,” she said.

An archived newsletter from 1976 noted that the town threw an outdoor celebration on the Fourth of July that included a grease pole climb, tug of war, and a chance to dunk the mayor. That capped off months of special events, including a parade and three bicentennial balls in March, band concerts in May, and a flag ceremony in June.

But 50 years later, Vienna has opted for a quieter, more reflective tone. It will host a series of book talks, a discussion of the latest Ken Burns documentary, and a “Boston Tea Party” tea tasting. No climbing grease poles, and no mayoral dunking.

No matter how Washingtonians celebrate, locals all share the same tip for anyone who dares to go downtown to watch fireworks on Independence Day, on any given year—expect long waits everywhere.

Stefanie Weiss says her family learned this the hard way back in 1976.

Taking the Metro on July 4th to see fireworks on the National Mall proved easy enough. But getting home was not, especially when tens of thousands of sweaty and tired tourists all wanted to leave at the same time.

Weiss said her father ended up hitchhiking home and driving the family car back into the city to pick up the family at 3 a.m. the next day. Weiss laughs about it now, but says it’s a piece of history she doesn’t plan to repeat.