UPDATED: Dec. 31, 1:30 p.m.
Citing rain in the forecast, city officials have cancelled the 6 p.m. fireworks show on New Year's Day, but fireworks are still on for New Year's Eve at 6 p.m. and midnight.
The original article follows:
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Technician Andrew Clemick stood on one of two 100-foot barges at the Navy Yard on Thursday. He’s overseeing the crews who are wiring hundreds of explosives into 3- to 10-inch-wide tubes for the New Year’s fireworks shows at Penn’s Landing.
“Every shell goes into a tube. Then every shell has an electric match that goes into our computer system. That computer system tells every single shell exactly what time it wants to shoot that shell, down to almost 1/1000th of a second,” he explained.
Clemick, with the New Castle, Pennsylvania-based firm Pyrotecnico, said they’ll spend about four days on the barges loading the shows.
“The majority of the bigger shells are just about all dropped,” he said. “Everything behind us, in front of us, has been dropped, plugged, wired and all cabled back to the system already.”
Hours and hours of preparation go into the shows, which will illuminate the Delaware River for about 11 minutes each.
Last year, because of the pandemic, there were no New Year’s fireworks shows. This year, there are three — a 6 p.m. New Year’s Eve show, another at midnight, and a first-ever New Year’s Day show at 6 p.m.
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The barges will be towed to Penn’s Landing, but because there are three shows and two barges, one will return to the Navy Yard to be reloaded.
The three shows each have different themes. The first, titled “Triumphant New Year,” will feature works by John Williams. The midnight “Get Your Groove On” show will play sounds of the ’70s. And the third show, “Love + Grit,” will celebrate Philly’s diverse communities with a soundtrack of strong, powerful female voices.
The soundtrack to each show can be heard live on KYW Newsradio at their respective times.
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After having no New Year’s fireworks last year because of COVID-19, Clemick said it’s good to be firing shells again.
“We lost, I think, about 80% to 90% of our business last year, so we’re happy to be back putting on displays again this year.”