Putting on the fireworks show over the bay that we enjoy every year is more complicated than many folks realize. This year the date of Sunday, July 6th was chosen carefully with many factors of cost and logistics in mind. Fireworks czar Jill Doczi explains:

Let’s start with the barge:

“ We can’t just use any barge. It has to be a certain-sized, oceangoing barge with a certain kind of edge around it and certain features. There are major, multi-year projects on the HRBT and the CBBT utilizing those types of barges, and the cost to get those to unload all their equipment, suspend their scheduled work and move from their locations for two days would be unthinkable. We (and the oceanfront) almost didn’t have a show about three years ago because there was no barge to be found in along the East Coast. We, the city, the fireworks company, etc. looked hard for months before we found one, which we shared. When there is a shortage of barges, you work with what you have. What we have is a barge being used already on July 4 that we are lucky to be using. We explored the option of doing it on Saturday, but the cost was way too high.“

Contraints on the crew for the fireworks:

“A crew, each of which has to be highly vetted far ahead of time by multiple security agencies, is dedicated to our show. It IS essentially a giant bomb that floats past vital shipyards, Little Creek Amphib Base and over major tunnel-bridges like HRBT and CBBT, so the people involved can’t just be found on the street to work for a day gig. They must have multiple permits at the federal and state level as well as longshoreman insurance.“

“It takes over a day to load in Chesapeake for that first show. Then it takes half a day to get to that shooting location. They shoot on Friday night at the Oceanfront, and it takes them the same amount of time to get back to Chesapeake, where the crew gets to rest because they’ve already been working nonstop with dangerous cargo since early the day before. Then they go back to work to prep and load our show, which will take a day to do.“

“If we wanted to shoot on Saturday night, the crew would have to be relieved by a second crew after being up so long, and our show would absorb the cost of the second crew, their permit fees, their travel, hotel, per diem, lodging, insurance, etc. If you’ve ever worked in maritime, insurance for Jones Act and workers comp is crazy. That second crew would then sail over to us (taking half a day), shoot our show and return in the middle of the night to Chesapeake to disassemble, load their things and go home.“

“BOTTOM LINE: We couldn’t absorb the 💰cost of a second crew, nor could we absorb the cost of a separate barge on our own (if there was one even available), so it became: Give the crew the required and necessary break and shoot on Sunday night or don’t have a show. The neighborhoods chose to have a show.“

“Keep in mind, this is only the logistics of the barge and crew. We also need to have an available tug and staff, the city services must be available on a busy holiday. VB fire marshal must be on site the entire time in Chesapeake while the barge and explosives are there, then on site here in our beach while the barge is here. As you can imagine, the fire marshal’s department is busy July 4, so they’re stretched thin. We also have to have a plan in place with a city special events person, beach police,⚓️ maritime police and Coast Guard to be on site for our show. They are stretched thin on July 4 as well.“

Jill continues: “I’m anticipating the next question.”

Why can’t we just have it on the beach and get rid of about half those issues?

1. We aren’t allowed to close off a large area of the public beach for the entire holiday weekend to prepare, load and have a show on the sand. Can you imagine how upset people would be if we had to block off our beach across multiple accesses? But that doesn’t matter anyway because of the next answer.
2. After the Ocracoke fireworks explosion in July 2009 that killed and injured multiple people, safety rules tightened up everywhere. You can only load shows that are far enough away from people and structures to keep them from harm. So we can’t trot giant 8-foot-diameter explosives down the beach paths all day with houses 16 feet on either side and people using the already full beach on a holiday. We also couldn’t place explosives with the capability of flying 800 feet sideways within 250 feet of houses and people.
3. Side note: This is also why it has to load in at an industrial dock in Chesapeake. Imagine the fire power of an entire truck full of hundreds of shells and what that could do to a block of houses on Jefferson or Sandy Bay, or even the boat ramp. It would never be permitted by the fire marshal.
4. There are SOME shows that can shoot from land, but, they must have a safety perimeter that meets the requirements. For instance, a 2-inch shell can fly roughly 200 feet in any direction, including sideways, so if you want to load a show with 2-inch shells or smaller, there have to be no buildings or people within 200 feet of the loading area or the show. That also means the fireworks are lower and harder to see by a wide crowd because they explode at 200 feet. A 3–inch shell needs 300 feet of load in and crowd-viewing perimeter, etc. The little ones that look like they’re exploding right above the barge deck are 2-inch shells. Our show uses up to 8-inch shells, so the whole beach gets a good view. The barge is so far out to get the necessary 800 to 1,000 feet of safety perimeter. That’s why Coast Guard and marine police are required to secure that perimeter. If an 8-inch shell got lose and shot sideways, it couldn’t hit anyone on the beach.

There is no way we could meet safety requirements to load a show in and shoot on our beach unless we’re talking some guys with bottle rockets, which would be a sad, sad show.

It’s a LOT of information. Trust me — I know. 😉 But, hopefully it answered multiple questions for multiple people. Short answer: It boils down to safety and cost. “

THANK YOU JILL AND ALL THE VOLUNTEERS AND ALL THE WONDERFUL PEOPLE WHO CONTRIBUTE TO MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Your donations are GREATLY APPRECIATED!!