When budget woes hit cities, quality-of-life services like holiday festivals and parades are usually the first to go, said Christiana McFarland, a National League of Cities’ researcher.

Stephen Vitale, president of Pennsylvania-based Pyrotecnico, said while his company is doing more shows this year because the holiday falls on a weekend, it’s clear that communities are struggling to pay for displays.

“They fight real hard to keep it when they can,” Vitale said.

Still, there will be an estimated 14,000 firework displays this year.

“I think many people would say, ’How do you do a Fourth of July celebration without fireworks?”’ said Chief Executive Doug Taylor of Zambelli Fireworks Internationale.

Fireworks shows in big cities like Chicago will go on as usual, while organizers acknowledge sponsor dollars have been tight. New York’s fireworks display, which is put on by Macy’s Inc., was unaffected.

Even beaten-down cities like Detroit, which has been flayed by high unemployment and a faltering auto industry, have been able to keep their displays.

“This community really, really needs these types of events to bring people together to create camaraderie and take people’s minds off of those day-to-day troubling issues,” said Tony Michaels, president of The Parade Co., a nonprofit group that organizes the annual fireworks.

Detroit’s show, one of the earliest of the season and primarily paid for by corporate sponsors including Target Corp., lit up the skies last week.

“It’s real Americana,” Michaels said. “All cities need these things.”

In Ashtabula, Ohio, northeast of Cleveland, fireworks were canceled for the first time in 14 years until a local radio station’s “Save the Fireworks” promotion netted the final $1,900 needed for the show, organizer Greg Kocjancic said.

“We survived,” Kocjancic said. “The community — individuals and businesses basically — saved the fireworks, because the city couldn’t help. A small town became mighty.”