There will be no Naperville Salute this summer, a decision organizers say was made to preserve the long-term health of both the event and the charitable organization behind it.
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The decision that the Fourth of July celebration, held annually at Naperville’s Rotary Hill, would be canceled this year was made in a post to social media Tuesday. Organizers cited fundraising shortfalls as the cause for cancellation.
“There were some unexpected financial headwinds that we faced,” Tyler Peterson, chair of the Salute Charitable Organization, said in a call Wednesday. “Unfortunately, canceling was the most fiscally responsible move to make for the event and the organization.”
This year would have been the Naperville Salute’s fifth. It was scheduled to take place from June 27-29. Instead, only the Naperville Responds for Veterans Ruck March will be held.
Peterson assured that the cancellation “does not mean the event or the organization is going away.” Rather, “it is a pause for this year as we regroup and bring it back better for 2026,” he said.
Naperville Salute launched in 2021. It was an idea conceived by Naperville Responds for Veterans, which assists veterans and their families — especially those with low and moderate incomes — with home repairs and renovations. The event itself, however, is run separately by the Salute Charitable Organization.
The festival is billed as a “family-friendly Independence Day hometown celebration, centered around our appreciation for veterans, active military, first responders and their families,” the Naperville Salute website says.
In previous years, the event has boasted food, drinks, children’s activities, live entertainment and special presentations for the military.
Naperville Salute came in the wake of Naperville Ribfest, the city’s former longstanding Fourth of July celebration, leaving town after its 2019 run.
Ribfest, after a few years spent at the DuPage County Event Center and Fairgrounds in Wheaton, was permanently ended last summer.
Initially, organizers had planned to launch Naperville Salute in 2020 but the celebration was delayed a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When it ultimately went forward in 2021, it was one of the first outdoor events staged in the area at the time, said Dan Jurjovec, president of Naperville Responds for Veterans.
To that end, Naperville Salute was “uniquely positioned to get some really discounted pricing from all of the different vendors that are associated with events like this,” Jurjovec said.
In the years since, partners tried to hold prices as steady as they could but ultimately, inflation pushed them higher, he said.
“We were trying to absorb those on an annual basis,” he said. “This year … I think the group just collectively felt like we were a little bit behind in the fundraising to put on an event that had the same kind of programming and the same type of execution that we were able to do in 2021, ’22, ’23 and ’24.”
Jurjovec said everyone “wanted to see the event go on.”
“But I think the real deciding factor was the long-term health of the event and this charitable organization, being able to make sure that we can plan appropriately,” he said, “and be back in 2026 and for years beyond that.”
From the get go, the intent with Naperville Salute was to provide a hometown-feel event, Peterson said.
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“You know, keep it a little more low-key and relaxed and get back to the residents,” he said.
Peterson noted that one portion of Salute festivities will still be held this summer: the Naperville Responds for Veterans Ruck March. It will likely take place about the same as it had been when the full event was held.
Organizers in their post Tuesday encouraged the community to be on the lookout for additional details for the march.