The 250th an­niver­sary of Amer­i­can in­de­pen­dence is col­lid­ing with a coun­try gripped by po­lit­i­cal po­lar­iza­tion and a heat wave bear­ing down on mil­lions of peo­ple across mul­ti­ple states as cel­e­bra­tions get un­der­way across the Unit­ed States on Sat­ur­day.

The sign­ing of the De­c­la­ra­tion of In­de­pen­dence, one of his­to­ry’s most cel­e­brat­ed ar­tic­u­la­tions of de­mo­c­ra­t­ic am­bi­tions, is be­ing marked in myr­i­ad ways. Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump, set to take a cen­tral role in fes­tiv­i­ties, plans to speak on the Na­tion­al Mall in Wash­ing­ton ahead of what’s be­ing billed as a his­tor­i­cal­ly enor­mous fire­works show that will rain down over the na­tion’s cap­i­tal. The pres­i­dent was in South Dako­ta at Mount Rush­more on Fri­day, where he de­liv­ered a dark speech about the threat of com­mu­nism in the U.S. as the chis­elled im­ages of four of his most promi­nent pre­de­ces­sors loomed be­hind him.

Else­where, fire­works are sched­uled to be set off Sat­ur­day over Navy Pier in Chica­go and against the sky­line of New York City, which al­so host­ed a ball drop at mid­night to ush­er in the hol­i­day with the same fan­fare as New Year’s Eve. Bris­tol, Rhode Is­land, de­scribes it­self as home of the na­tion’s old­est In­de­pen­dence Day cel­e­bra­tions dat­ing to 1785. In Los An­ge­les, Queen Lat­i­fah will host a con­cert fea­tur­ing per­for­mances by The Smash­ing Pump­kins and Chris Sta­ple­ton. Cha­ka Khan is billed as a spe­cial guest.