This year, you might consider skipping the famed Fourth of July celebration in Bolinas. Overcrowding has put the oldest Independence Day celebration in Marin County at risk of cancellation, organizers say. More than 3,000 and as many as 6,000 people are expected to attend this year, crowding the town of about 1,200 to a potentially dangerous level. “I hope we can continue the tradition, but we’ll have to see what happens this year,” said Matt Lewis, the president of the Briones Lions Club, which organizes the event. “In the last five years there’s been a monumental difference in people coming out here on the Fourth. It’s quite a mob scene.” Last year, someone brandished a gun, putting the parade on hold for an hour. This year, delineators and caution tape along the parade route will separate crowds from parade participants for the first time, prompted by another incident last year when a sheriff’s deputy rescued a child who was nearly run over by a float. Mr. Lewis expects about 90 volunteers, along with four to six law enforcement officers charged with keeping the area safe. Volunteers will direct cars to the fire station, where they can walk a half mile or take a free shuttle to the downtown parade (parking at Mesa Park is $10). National park rangers   will serve as parking attendants, ensuring emergency services have access to the parade. The celebration, which is over 120 years old, has taken many forms. Fireworks once launched in organized beach displays are now frequently set   off illegally in the street, while the Stinson Beach versus Bolinas tug-of-war has moved in the opposite direction—from a no-rules affair to organized teams of 30. The parade has remained weird and wild. In 1971, the Briones Lions Club took over the responsibility of organizing the festivities from the volunteer fire department. Although they enjoy the tradition, club members are now overwhelmed with the amount of planning that goes into ensuring the celebration goes off without a hitch: they’ve been working since April 1 to mitigate problems created by the influx of visitors. “If we can’t keep it safe, it’ll be cancelled, and we really don’t want to be those folks, after 120 years, to cancel the parade,” Mr. Lewis said. “We are going to be discussing discontinuing the parade for a year just to get a breather, just to regroup and see what happens.”