As the 4th of July holiday nears this weekend organizers are preparing to welcome large crowds back to events as many people in Pennsylvania are now vaccinated and the state's mask mandate has been dropped.
"We're hoping to get 3,000, maye 4,000 people here. That would be about twice what we had last year," said Karl Pietrzak of Destination Gettysburg about the fireworks event set to light up the skies at Gettysburg Recreational Park.
Meantime at the Daniel Lady Farm, hundreds more reenactors are set to take fill the '2021 Battle of Gettysburg.'
"We said we'd open up on Friday for the reenactors and we've had reenactors here since Monday. They keep coming in and saying, oh well, we just wanted to get out. We'll help, we'll do whatever you need. So, it's quite an amazing change from yesteryears," said Kirk Davis of The Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association.
Some reenactors at the site estimated the event could see up to 4,000 participants this year. Last year at this time, organizers were rescheduling and navigating concerns of COVID-19.
Learn more about the reenactment:
Learn more about A Gettysburg Fourth! (fireworks celebration):
Hear from a reenactor:
"With the fact that we don't wear a mask we can actually communicate, carry on, and give everybody a hug and a handshake. It's like everybody's running around acting like a teenager running around for the first time," said Davis.