Those Illinois Fireworks- Ours is Bigger than Yours

Yesterday's Chicago Tribune had an article in the Tempo section titled "Who has the best fireworks on the 4th?" by Colleen Mastony.

It started off with "GREAT DEBATES- Happy 231st bithday, United States! It's a day for flags, parades, fireworks and community spirit, softball games and horseshoes, speechifying and celebrating summer on the day our nation got its start. Dissent and debates are cherished American traditions. In that spirit, we look at two deeply divisive questions: Who has the best fireworks on the 4th?"

Colleen pretty-well summed up the Fourth with those words.

Her article was primarily about the competition between towns in the state to have the biggest and the best fireworks display. Along with that goes the bragging rights. Some towns approach this with a fervor. She mentioned a long-standing competition between downstate (all places in Illinois outside of Chicago and environs are called downstate, even areas out to the west) Streator and Pekin.

Murphysboro says it has the largest display in southern Illinois and Carbondale disputes that.

The Quad Cities (Moline and Rock Island in Illinois and Bettendorf and Davenport in Iowa) says it has the largest two-state display.

Arlington Heights, Lisle, and Bolingbrook claim the best in the Chicago suburbs.

I guess you'd just have to visit each one to make your own subjective choices.

Chicago, of course, is considered to have the best display with $100,000 worth of explosives, but it only lasts 20 mouth-dropping minutes and is accompanied by a live orchestra. Other city shows go longer.

Of course, these days, the common theme is extreme. You have to top last year's display and have to impress the kids, with their short attention spans, with more and more, faster and faster. That is one reason why the displays are shorter than in the past, when one firework would be shot off and then there'd be a wait. Now, they go up much faster and in combinations. Usually there are one or more pre-finales as teasers.

"Melrose Pyrotecnics, the largest fireworks display company in the Midwest, shoots 800 shows the first week of July."

Bob Kerns of the company explained the differences in shells: "European-made shells are favorites for the way they move and spin. Chinese shells resemble flowers , opening up like dahlias and chrysanthemums and peonies. Japanese shells explode in glittering sprays that linger in the sky. Putting it all together is like painting a masterpiece or choreographing a ballet."

When those wave on wave start, that is a sight to behold. I am especially fond of the Chinese ones, especially the sky-filling, gold glittering ones.

Indoor fireworks are growing in popularity and fireworks sales have nearly doubled from 2000 to 2006, partly because of the growing competition between towns. I'd like to add that I have noticed neighbors having growing competition as well.

There was a comparison table between Illinois towns as to date, expenditure, numbers of shells, crowd estimate, length, and music accompaniment:

Chicago- July 3-$100,000- 5500-1million- 20 minutes- live symphonic orchestra
Peoria- July 4- $50,000- 5500- 175,000- 22 minutes- radio broadcast
Rockford- July 4- $60,000- 6000- 125,000- 30 minutes- radio broadcast
Itasca- July 4- $60,000- 5000- 40,000- 24 minutes- speakers
Streator- July 7- $35,000- 3500- 20-30,000- 24 minutes- radio broadcast

I guess a person could make their own observations about who has the better display in the Streator-Peoria confrontation since they are on separate days.

I believe most town displays are now put on by professionals, which is for the best.

Oooohing and Aaaahing. --RoadDog