The Board of Trustees suspended most large gatherings this year to begin an indefinite grounds restoration. The highest-attended event on the annual calendar is staying — not by choice, but because a legal document written 70 years ago says it must.
The Lititz Springs Park that this Lancaster County borough knew through most of its summer calendar looks different this year. Five of its largest events have been removed from the grounds on North Broad Street. A restoration project with no confirmed completion date is underway. And the one event the board was never able to touch — the Fourth of July celebration, 209 years running — returns this summer and will draw the kind of crowds that wore the park down in the first place.
That is where things stand in May 2026.
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Why Lititz Springs Park Suspended Its Events
The Board of Trustees announced the decision August 20, 2025, in a Facebook post that local television stations and LancasterOnline covered the same week. The formal explanation was a grounds restoration project. The underlying problem had been building for years before the announcement.
Rich Motz, who has served as board president for three years, described what he found when he first took the role. Parts of the park’s grass had measurably dropped in elevation. Some areas have lost six inches of ground to recurring floodwaters — soil physically removed, not just compacted.
“The problems I think you can see around — there’s so many bare spots. Back when I first came to the park there was a lot more green grass,” Motz told reporters in August 2025.
The park is the official flood plain for the Borough of Lititz. That is not incidental — it is engineered to absorb stormwater from the surrounding area, which means every significant rain resets whatever recovery the ground managed between events. With nearly two dozen community events running through the seven acres each year, the window for the ground to recover between events had effectively closed.
Trustee Kellye Martin, who has served on the board for eight years, framed the question the board had been sitting with for years before acting on it: “Is this park functioning as a park where people can come enjoy time on the playgrounds, walk their dogs, do pavilion rentals — or is it an event venue?”
The board’s answer, made final in August 2025 and in effect since January 2026, was that the park could not survive as both.
The Physical Damage Behind the Decision
- Floodwater erosion: Six inches of ground lost in three years in some sections. On July 1, 2025, the park sat completely underwater three days before the Fourth of July. Volunteers drained and cleaned the grounds to make the celebration possible that week.
- Root damage to historic trees: Martin confirmed that trees along the stream with root systems dating to the Civil War era are under direct threat. “Every time we have a large gathering those roots get some damage to them,” she said. “We want to really be careful that we can preserve those roots, so those trees don’t die.”
- No public funding: Lititz Springs Park, Inc. is a private non-profit. It receives no tax revenue. Its income comes from the July 4th celebration, pavilion rentals, and community donations. The rising cost of post-event ground repair outpaced what that funding model could support.
- Maintenance impossible to keep up with: “We’re finding that trying to go between the big events, we can’t keep up with the amount of work that is necessary anymore,” Motz said.
Which Events Are No Longer at Lititz Springs Park
The following five events were suspended from the park beginning in 2026. All organizers received notice at the end of their 2024 events, giving each nearly two full years to find alternative locations.
| Event | 2026 Status |
|---|---|
| Warwick Marching Band Food Truck Festival | Suspended from park |
| Lancaster Evangelical Free Church Sunday in the Park | Suspended from park |
| Lancaster County Chooses Love Pride Festival | Suspended from park |
| Lititz Art Association Outdoor Fine Art Show | Relocated |
| L’Italia Festival | Relocated |
Where the Two Biggest Events Landed
L’Italia Festival brought 15,000 people to Lititz Springs Park in September 2024. After the suspension, the Keystone Italian Project secured a new location through Lititz Borough Council in spring 2026. The festival moves to the second block of East Main Street, from Cedar Street to Cherry Lane, near Lititz Moravian Church, on September 19, 2026. The street will close for the event. Admission remains free.
The Lititz Outdoor Fine Art Show spent 43 years inside Lititz Springs Park after moving from the town’s sidewalks in 1982. That 43-year run ended with the 2025 show. In 2026, the Lititz Art Association relocated the event to the East Main Street corridor on Saturday, October 3, 2026, shifting from the late-July summer heat to autumn. The show is free and continues its history as one of the few strictly juried fine art exhibitions in the region, featuring work from more than 130 artists.
What Is Still Happening Inside the Park in 2026
Several events are continuing on park grounds this year:
- Kiwanis Kids’ Day
- Community Vespers services
- Lititz Farmers Market
- Lititz Fire & Ice Festival
- Christmas in the Park
- Fourth of July celebration — July 4, 2026 (see below)
The Fourth of July Exception — and Why the Board Has No Say in It
When the board cleared most large events from the Lititz Springs Park calendar, one was never on the table for removal. The annual Fourth of July celebration, which has run without interruption since 1818, is exempt from the same review that displaced every other large event. The board did not spare it out of tradition alone. An operating agreement between the park and the Lititz Moravian Congregation — the church that owns the land the park sits on — legally requires the celebration to continue. That agreement states the board must carry it forward “in a manner and form which will be in keeping with the history and traditions of the celebrations and the community of Lititz.”
The board cannot unilaterally remove it. Martin also confirmed it is the park’s sole fundraising event — the annual revenue that covers operating costs, building maintenance, and the Lititz Memorial Square.
What that means in practice: the board removed events to let the ground heal, while remaining permanently bound to host its largest single-day gathering every July, on the same flood plain that may have been submerged days before it. Martin told reporters the board is “taking it year by year” on the broader question of when large events might be allowed to return. No timeline has been set.
Lititz Springs Park July 4th Celebration 2026
The 209th Independence Day celebration runs Saturday, July 4, 2026. The full schedule:
- 7:00 to 11:00 a.m. — Blanket Run (no ticket required)
- 11:00 a.m. to noon — Park closed for security sweep
- 11:00 a.m. — Lititz Lions Club Patriotic Parade, downtown Lititz
- 12:30 p.m. — Baby Parade at the band shell
- 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. — Kid Zone: performances, crafts, games, photo booth, caricatures
- Afternoon — Live music and more than 20 food trucks
- 8:30 p.m. — Queen of Candles ceremony and candle lighting
- 9:30 p.m. — Gates close, fireworks and drone show begins
Ticket prices (pre-sale through 8:00 p.m. July 3):
- Adults 11 and older: $16.00
- Children ages 3 to 10: $6.00
- Children under 2: Free
Gate sales begin at noon on July 4th.
What the Queen of Candles Actually Is
The Queen of Candles ceremony goes back to 1843, when the park held a general illumination of its grounds using 400 candles. The tradition now uses more than 5,000 candles placed along Lititz Run. The ceremony works as a chain: a Warwick High School senior, selected each spring by a secret classmate vote and sponsored by the Lititz Woman’s Club, is crowned queen and lights the candles of her court. The court lights the torches of Lititz Boy Scouts. The flame moves outward through the park until the full length of the stream glows. The Queen of Candles pageant was added in 1942 to mark the 100th anniversary of the first illumination. The fireworks tradition began in 1846.
Rules for Visitors and Event Organizers at Lititz Springs Park
Lititz Springs Park is open dawn to dusk, every day. The Welcome Center at the train station is open Monday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and closes during the July 4th celebration and the Rotary Craft Show.
Location: 24 North Broad Street, Lititz, PA 17543. Two free parking lots serve the park — the front lot off North Broad Street, the back off Maple Street. There is no thru-traffic through the park.
The park is smoke-free and alcohol-free. All visitors are subject to the following rules:
- Pets must be on a leash at all times
- No bicycles, rollerblades, scooters, or skateboards on footpaths
- No wading or swimming in Lititz Run or any water feature
- No firearms or weapons of any kind
- No political activity or campaigning
- No commercial sales or soliciting without prior board approval
For anyone planning to host an organized or commercial activity:
All for-profit activities require Park Board approval before any date is confirmed. Submit requests to lspark@ptd.net at least one month in advance. Approved activities require a Certificate of Liability Insurance naming Lititz Springs Park, Inc. as additional insured. Large public events also require a separate Activity Permit from Lititz Borough — meaning the approval process runs through both the park board and the borough separately.
Pavilion rentals are full-day only. No one under 18 may sign the rental agreement. Reservations open up to 365 days in advance. Rental payments are non-refundable on cancellation, though events can be rescheduled within 365 days before the payment becomes a tax-free donation.
For accessibility needs or questions about gate access and equipment unloading, contact the park directly: lspark@ptd.net or (717) 626-8981.
What the Restoration Involves
The board confirmed the project will proceed in phases, with no published end date:
- Walking path improvements across the park
- Water mitigation work in swale areas to reduce ground saturation between flood events
- Refurbishments to bridges and stream walls
- Native species planting to support biodiversity
- Conversion of the adjacent sports field into a nature preserve — a swale-based system designed to absorb floodwaters before they reach the park, with walking trails and wildlife habitat
Motz described the nature preserve plan in August 2025: “At some point that’s going to be probably dug into a swale area to kind of turn it into a nature preserve so people can walk out there, walk trails and see the butterflies and everything else — and then when the floods come it will fill up with water and will take a good portion of what’s coming.”
The park at 24 North Broad Street is open. Families walk the paths. The ducks are in the stream. The bare patches are still visible, still expanding after heavy rain. This July, thousands of people will fill those same grounds for the 209th consecutive Independence Day celebration, the board will collect the ticket revenue it depends on, and the restoration will pause for a day to make room for the crowd it has spent the rest of the year protecting the ground from. What the park looks like the following summer depends on a board that has made no promises beyond the current year.
