The Other McCain

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Our Patriotic Duty: Fill the Sky

Posted on | July 4, 2026 | No Comments

We bought wholesale by the case this year, shopping the “Early Bird” special in April, but we did not stop there. Every time I thought, “OK, we have enough fireworks now,” the universe answered: “More.”

So we kept buying and buying. As late as Friday, July 3, I added a dozen more big booms for the Grand Finale, because that’s what matters most — end big, so that the audience is left in a condition of astonishment.

Last night we finished fusing up the last mortar racks. If you look at the photo closely, see on the right side those four black boxed with silver swords? Those are Excaliber canister shells (“Excals”) and we’ve got 96 of them in the show, along with 96 Neon Skies canister shells (in the cardboard case next to the Excals) as well as 66 Whistling Blasters, 12 King Arthur canister shells, 42 Nishiki Blast canister shells (willow effect) and six other canister shells — 318 total. That’s in addition to the dozens of cakes (repeaters) that will be fused together on barrage boards.

As I’ve explained before, the reason that consumer fireworks (1.4G) are so much fun is that you don’t need safety “setbacks” as long as those required for professional (1.3G) shows. Instead of seeing the shells break way off in the distance, the greater proximity of consumer fireworks makes it feel like the breaks are “in your face” — as if you are inside the barrage, an almost hallucinogenic feeling. Just to give you a small understanding of what we have planned, we have three boards in the finale composed entirely of smaller 200-gram cakes, which will break lower than the artillery shells. Those three boards comprise a total of 540 shots that will be fired in about 20 seconds (i.e., 27 shots per second), and that’s just one element of the grand finale. Intensity.

Beyond the intensity fact, the other thing is to “fill the sky” — from top to bottom and side to side. We’ll use many angled effects, and there will be color comets and mine effects shooting up from the ground, so that the barrage is panoscopic. I’d like to continue this pyrotechnic lecture, but now I’ve got to go supervise the show-day preparations, and there’s no more time. Sunset is at 8:42 and showtime is an hour after that. We must go do our patriotic duty on this, our nation’s 250th birthday.



 

Category: Fireworks

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