PEORIA, Ill. – Months of preparation go into the half-hour display of colorful lights in the River City night sky for Choose Greater Peoria Red White and BOOM presented by i3 Broadband.
Jonathan Gesse is with Pyrotechnical Fireworks, the supplier of the fireworks for the show Saturday night on the Peoria and East Peoria riverfronts. Gesse says this year’s edition will be his 22nd providing the fireworks for BOOM.
Gesse says the work begins in January or February when the music is selected for BOOM, as well as what fireworks will be selected for the show. After that, Gesse says the design team will go second-by-second to pick which fireworks and effects will be synced to the music.
“We have a person on staff that creates a 3D rendering, a visualization, of each effect,” Gesse said. “So that way, when our choreographers go through song-by song putting the fireworks in, they can actually watch a digital representation of the fireworks show as it’s being designed.”
Gesse says a blueprint is then given to the show crew on where to place each firework on the barge. He says it takes several days to load the fireworks on the barge, according to the blueprint.
On the night of BOOM, Gesse says the lead technician will start the show through a specialized computer firing system.
But Gesse says the work is not done, once the show gets underway. He says crews on the barge are making sure everything goes smoothly.
“They’re watching the fireworks actually fire from the mortars to make sure that nothing explodes in the mortar. Or what’s called a low-break, where the firework might explode lower than expected to make sure that no equipment or anything gets damaged on the barge,” Gesse said.
Gesse says the operator will also follow the script of the show to tell the crew what comes next in the show, and to ensure there’s no electrical shortages that would prevent a shell from firing.
Once the show is complete, Gesse says crews will wait for about 15-20 minutes to make sure everything on the barge has cooled down before taking apart the firing system and beginning the tear down.
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