Royal Fireworks Concert in Riverfront Park canceled this year

A funding shortfall and ongoing construction in Riverfront Park, among other issues, have forced the organizers of the 38th annual Royal Fireworks Concert to cancel the free event.

The concert usually takes place on the last Sunday of July. In a news release, the Spokane Historic Concerts Association, which has hosted the event the past two years, listed several reasons for the cancellation but said it plans to bring the concert back in 2018.

The association said it had raised about 40 percent of the needed money by mid-June “with virtually no corporate support.”

And with the ongoing construction, parking and access to the floating stage and the Lilac Meadow are “difficult at best,” the association said.

Additionally, the association’s board needed to fill a number of vacancies, and “a medical issue has affected one of the producers of the event.”

The concert had a 35-year run under Allegro Baroque and Beyond, but ended in 2013 because of rising costs and declining sponsorships. An effort to revive the concert in 2014 failed, but the association brought it back in 2015.