CENTERVILLE -- The Americana Festival showed us how they put their spectacular fireworks show together.
The Americana Festival promised their renowned fireworks would go on rain or shine. Not only did they deliver, they gave us an inside look into what it takes to put on their renowned show
Putting together 2,000 fireworks with coordinating music for 21 minutes of straight firepower is no easy feat. So what's the first step?
"Bring lots of tarps!" Audio Director Dave Shores jokes.
But Dave isn't completely kidding. The constant rain made preparing for the show a slow, slow process.
"We're actually sinking into this cornfield that was plowed six inches everytime we walk," the show's Director Bill Greene explained on Thursday.
"Unloading the shells from the truck, making sure they stay dry. Everything has to stay dry."
Greene and his crew of 10 spent 8 straight hours today unloading, covering, and wiring.
"2 thousand shells to load. Every shell has to be wired into our computer system in order to fire it. It's a slow process," Greene said.
The show is totally automated so the technical portion begins next.
"The music is on one track and the other track carries the timecode and we send it by radio over to the fireworks where a laptop picks it up and shoots the fireworks off," Shores added.
Once the computer is hooked up and in sync, then its time to test each and every firework individually.
"We actually test the continuity of each shell to make sure when the computer tells it to fire that it goes," Greene explained.
And once the crew is confident each spark will fire when it's supposed to, it's finally time to sit back, relax and enjoy the show.
Greene estimates a show of this quality costs about 2-thousand dollars per minute. Expensive, sure, but event organizers say its worth every penny.
The Americana Festival promised their renowned fireworks would go on rain or shine. Not only did they deliver, they gave us an inside look into what it takes to put on their renowned show
Putting together 2,000 fireworks with coordinating music for 21 minutes of straight firepower is no easy feat. So what's the first step?
"Bring lots of tarps!" Audio Director Dave Shores jokes.
But Dave isn't completely kidding. The constant rain made preparing for the show a slow, slow process.
"We're actually sinking into this cornfield that was plowed six inches everytime we walk," the show's Director Bill Greene explained on Thursday.
"Unloading the shells from the truck, making sure they stay dry. Everything has to stay dry."
Greene and his crew of 10 spent 8 straight hours today unloading, covering, and wiring.
"2 thousand shells to load. Every shell has to be wired into our computer system in order to fire it. It's a slow process," Greene said.
The show is totally automated so the technical portion begins next.
"The music is on one track and the other track carries the timecode and we send it by radio over to the fireworks where a laptop picks it up and shoots the fireworks off," Shores added.
Once the computer is hooked up and in sync, then its time to test each and every firework individually.
"We actually test the continuity of each shell to make sure when the computer tells it to fire that it goes," Greene explained.
And once the crew is confident each spark will fire when it's supposed to, it's finally time to sit back, relax and enjoy the show.
Greene estimates a show of this quality costs about 2-thousand dollars per minute. Expensive, sure, but event organizers say its worth every penny.
