Why Are the Fireworks on the 1st of July this year?

It bears repeating that the time and effort involved in arranging the fireworks every year for Ocean Park and the bayfront is considerable and is accomplished by people donating their time, chiefly of course is Jill Doczi. The short answer to the question of why the fireworks are on the 1st this year is: it saves a lot of money. The fireworks are funded exclusively through donations. None of the money raised goes into the civic league. Please donate to the fireworks fund!! (though by supporting the civic league you are contributing to the administrative costs and supporting the fireworks also). In recent years fireworks by other civic leagues along the water have been discontinued.. it takes a lot of work to get it done!

The longer story of why this saves money is interesting. Jill says: “There is an enormous barge shortage due to some major long-term construction projects in the midAtlantic concluding HRBT and CBBT. So much so that it took us and our contacts in Special Events at the city several months of working together to locate the correct type and size of ocean-going barge last year. The city and our show lost our long-term fireworks vendor over it because he was afraid he would be left with no income at all on the fourth and accepted some land shows. It was so nerve-wracking looking and being disappointed over the three months we searched that I almost quit 3 times. We were convinced there would be no fireworks in Virginia Beach at all several times. Anyway, the city finally located one. Because of that we piggybacked on the barge use last year and will this year.” We had two choices: “do the turnaround from the 3rd to the 4th and pay all that crew overtime (all of these people have to have Homeland Security clearance, State Polic clearance, fire marshal approval set. They can’t just find some employees at a temp agency) or have one load-in on the 1st or 2nd for $10,000 cheaper. Definitely save the $10,000 was the way we went. Considering that the 1st fell on a Saturday, the consensus was choose Saturday.”