PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Crews at the Navy Yard have loaded fireworks onto the barge in preparation for the 6 p.m. and midnight shows on New Year’s Eve at Penn’s Landing.
It takes an eight-person crew three days to set up the mortars and connect the hundreds of wires from the explosives to the computer that will set them off.
Show producer Ken Furstoss, from the New Castle, Pennsylvania-based fireworks firm Pyrotecnico, said it takes an hour for a programmer to design each minute of the 12-minute presentations.
“Once it’s scripted, the shells are selected. Then it has to go to the plant and all these shells are pulled. They go to a special facility, then they’re marked with addresses and reboxed and brought out to us,” Furstoss explained. “Every shell has an address. Every shell has a certain place it needs to go.”
The 6 p.m. show has a movie theme, and the midnight display has a celebration theme.
Furstoss said his firm always changes the displays, and there are sure to be some never-seen-before explosives in this year’s production over the Delaware River.
High winds or lightning could postpone the show, but Furstoss said if it only rains on Saturday, the shows can still go on.
KYW Newsradio will provide the musical soundtrack for both shows. Tune in to 1060 AM and 103.9 FM at the respective show times.
