(NewsNation) — Two years after a gunman killed seven people and injured dozens more during a July 4 parade, an Illinois community’s holiday festivities will again include a beloved tradition this year celebrating a city’s resiliency as much as the day on which it falls.

The Highland Park parade’s return marks an important turning point for a tight-knit community north of Chicago, which was cast into the national spotlight in 2022 as the latest community to be marred by gun violence.

Yet, as event organizers have worked to again integrate the parade into a busy schedule of holiday-themed events, planning has prioritized demonstrating respect, compassion and support for those forever changed by the tragedy.

“What is important now, after experiencing the shooting, is that we are so much more sensitive to, and are trying to be mindful of how much a traumatic event on an entire community and an entire region, and an entire country,” Highland Park City Manager Ghida Neukirch told NewsNation.

New parade safety measures

Highland Park’s July 4 plans will begin with a remembrance that honors the lives lost in the parade shooting.

For the first time, the city will deploy a security drone to help with event surveillance.

Additionally, city officials have announced the ceremony has reached maximum capacity as organizers strive to put the public’s safety and well-being first.

Last year the town held a memorial walk instead of a parade to commemorate a tragic anniversary. For this year’s parade officials have made slight adjustments to the route.

That decision came partly out of sensitivity, Neukirch said. Additionally, fireworks that were first suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic are no longer part of the July 4 schedule due to the trauma they can bring to parade shooting victims, veterans and pets, she added.

A Highland Park-themed drone show has replaced fireworks as an homage not only to the city’s unique sense of community but to also honor the progress the city has made over the past two years, Neukirch said.

Although safety has always remained a top priority in the planning of all Highland Park events, the 2022 deadly parade shooting created a new reality.

A Northeastern University criminologist found that Independence Day has produced more than 50 shootings with multiple casualties over the past decade. That has forced local officials to put even a higher priority on public safety after working through the aftermath of the parade shooting.

Neukirch says the city has adopted a local police official’s strategy of “living in the yellow” as they continue to balance emergency preparedness with moving ahead, always stressing that residents remain vigilant of what is happening around them.

“The shooting that we endured was a horrific tragedy that truly no community should have to endure,” Neukirch said. “But we always recognize that it’s something that could happen in any community and any type of location.”

Crime scares force others to cancel festivities

Although Highland Park has elected to add events back to its community calendar, several other Illinois communities have backed away from summer festivals over ongoing safety concerns.

Suburban Chicago Ridge’s annual festival slated for late July was scrapped after officials cited “safety concerns.”

“With those types of festivals, you have to look at them in a different light now,” Chicago Ridge Mayor Jack Lind told NewsNation. “Trying to get the people to come out to events like that, it’s become difficult because people read the (news) reports, and they get nervous about coming into the big crowds.”

Village officials in Posen, Illinois, voted this year to indefinitely cancel its annual carnival after a large fight among teenagers from mostly outside of the community broke out in 2023. Police officials characterized the incident as “civil unrest” that lasted more than two hours.

Elected leaders in Posen, a community of less than 6,000 south of Chicago, determined last year’s unrest wasn’t worth the risk of bringing the carnival back.

“It has to be done. The safety is too great. It’s just, unfortunately, not worth having,” Terrence Whitcomb, Posen’s director of parks and recreation, told Chicago news station WLS-TV.

City council members in downstate Peoria also voted to do away with the city’s annual fireworks display this year. Peoria police had previously pushed for fireworks to cease, citing high crime responses, the Peoria Journal-Star reported.

In suburban Tinley Park, a large flash mob of 400 teenagers engaged in a large fight during its Armed Forces Weekend Carnival last year. The last day of the festival was canceled following the incident.

This year, Tinley Park’s elected leaders are keeping Fourth of July traditions in place this year, albeit with a different focus. Village Manager Pat Carr told NewsNation that after the 2023 fight the village approaches large events with a stronger emphasis on security.