My wife and I went away for the 4th of July weekend to Maine. So I started thinking about fireworks. The town we stayed in had fireworks shows in the past but not this year. Someone said the town couldn’t raise the money. So we went up the road a bit to Kennebunkport. They weren’t shooting the pyro but Kennebunk was and their beaches are separated by a harbor. What I noticed was how full the town was. Traffic was heavy for a small town and parking was hard to find. We had to park about a half mile from the downtown and we got there early. All the restaurants were only taking reservations and they were full. All these people for a 20 to 25 minute fireworks show. So I asked myself, why would a town say they cannot afford to produce a fireworks event? They way I see it, you could get a lot of “bang” for the buck (could not help myself). I know that putting on an event like this is a lot of time and effort for such a quick show. But it should bring the town tons of revenue if done right. You could turn the fireworks event into an all day bigger event. This not only brings people and money into the town but it keeps them there all day spending money. If costs are an issue, then get a sponsor. You could even get neighboring towns involved to share the costs and the rewards. Let’s face it, if they are close enough they are going to share the reward anyway. That’s what Kennebunkport did. Remember, the fireworks belonged to the town of Kennebunk.
November 17, 2008 at 12:01 am
A mid sized decent display for a town would be between 15-20k.
A lot of smaller towns cant afford the price tag.
I work within the display fireworks industry and see that alot of towns would like a good show, but they just dont have the extra money for it.