Highland Park’s two-day Independence Day details, including how to register

Now three years since the July 4 tragedy, the city’s Independence Day events will now span across two days, led by a community festival with a remembrance ceremony and parade to follow. 

The community festival will take place a day early, from 5:30-8:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 3, in The Preserve at 1207 Park Ave. The festival will provide an evening of food trucks, music, games and various other attractions in the public park. 

Highland Park will then host a remembrance ceremony from 9-9:30 a.m. on Friday, July 4, to honor the memories of the seven people killed during the 2022 shooting and show solidarity for the dozens injured and more traumatized, a Highland Park city website says. 

The remembrance ceremony will take place at The Moraine, located at 1201 Park Avenue W., and feature a candle-lighting, music and the opportunity to contribute to a mosaic. Advance registration is required through an online form.

The existing memorial dedicated to the July 4 attack, located in the Rose Garden adjacent to Highland Park City Hall, 1707 St. Johns Ave., will remain open to the public on July 4; however, individuals concerned about feeling re-traumatized during the parade may want to avoid visiting the Rose Garden memorial between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Friday as the parade is anticipated to begin staging around 10:30 a.m., city officials said. 

The “Dream Team”-themed Independence Day parade will begin marching at 11 a.m. on July 4. The parade will begin at First Street and Laurel Avenue before moving through downtown Highland Park and ending at Sunset Woods Park. Road closures will begin at 9 a.m.

The parade’s theme aims to be a celebration of “all that brings us together,” whether that be family, sports, dance, faith or community-oriented organizations, city officials said. Attendees are encouraged to wear related team jerseys or apparel, and floats will celebrate certain colors and mascots. 

There will not be an official city- or park district-sponsored event on the evening of Independence Day.

Updates from the City are available at www.cityhpil.com. Check the Park District of Highland Park’s website at www.pdhp.org for the operating hours of other city parks as they may be different on July 4. 

The man who used a semi-automatic rifle to open fire from a roof near the downtown Highland Park Independence Day on July 4, 2022, — whom The Record does not identify — was sentenced by a Lake County judge in April to seven consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. 

The life sentences equate to one for each of the victims of the attack: Katie Goldstein, Irina McCarthy, Kevin Michael McCarthy, Stephen Straus, Jacki Lovi Sundheim, Nicolás Toledo and Eduardo Uvaldo.

The shooter also received a 50-year sentence for each of the 48 individual counts of attempted murder to be served consecutively to the seven life sentences. He pleaded guilty on March 3 to all 69 criminal charges, which included 21 for murder. 

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