‘Awe-inspiring’ work goes into making Freedom Festival fireworks show

CEDAR RAPIDS — Paul Myers has been operating the Freedom Festival fireworks display for 20 years — but he says he still finds the process nerve-wracking.

Before thousands of fireworks can light up the night sky, each the pyrotechnics must be painstakingly placed.

“I get very detail-oriented, I get very stressed,” said Myers, lead operator for J & M Displays of Yarmouth. “I’m blessed to have a great crew, though — they know what I want, they know what I anticipate, and I don’t have to give a lot of instruction.”

The setup for the display takes about 20 hours of work, starting at 6 p.m. July 3 to when the fireworks are set off at dusk July 4. For tonight’s show, a crew of 10 people worked to assemble the fireworks Saturday night on the First Avenue Bridge in downtown Cedar Rapids.

After the perimeter of the site was secured, crews get to work unloading trucks full of tubes, and began the process of laying them out. “For every break in the sky, there’s a tube on the ground,” Myers said. “There’s literally thousands of tubes on the ground that we have to get in to a certain order.”

The crew works late into the night and returns on the holiday to finish set up by morning so testing can take place before the show. The timing of the fireworks display is completely controlled by computer.

“For everything you see break in the sky, there’s a wire attached to the ground, that tells it when to fire,” he said.

Though he’s been on the job for two decades, Myers said the stakes of putting together the show each year can be rattling — making sure the show goes off without a hitch is a big responsibility.

Karol Shepherd, executive director of Freedom Festival, said that planning for the next years’ show already begins July 5. The first step in the process is choosing the musical selections for the show, as all of the fireworks are choreographed to detonate on time with the music.

The Freedom Fest fireworks show was canceled last year amid the pandemic. And due to continuing uncertainty this year, she and her team knew the fireworks show would be able to take place downtown only 10 weeks ahead of the event — condensing what typically would be a year’s worth of planning into a few months.

“A lot of us worked our tails off,” Shepherd said.

Despite the short turnaround time, this year’s show will feature the largest fireworks seen in Freedom Fest to date — the launch site has been moved back slightly, allowing for operators to shoot off larger firework shells without danger to the crowd. The show will feature 6,766 individual shells.

“They can put a lot more pyrotechnic material in to a 5-inch shell than they can a 3-inch shell,” Myers said. “So people are going to see more pattern shells like heart stars, smiley faces and Saturns.”

Shepherd is expecting even larger crowds at the Freedom Festival display tonight than in previous years. The Cedar Boat Club display was canceled this year, and fireworks in Marion will take place on Labor Day.

“The interest has been very high, appreciating that a lot of other communities, also planning in a pandemic, some have chose not to move forward with their display,” Shepherd said.

The fireworks will take place at dusk tonight. Prime viewing spots are from the Second Avenue Bridge and the McGrath Amphitheatre. Entry is free with a Freedom Festival button — but kids 8 and under don’t need a button to enter.

This year is Shepherd’s first as executive director of Freedom Festival. For the first time, she watched the fireworks being set up for Saturday evening.

“It truly is awe-inspiring,” she said. “Pretty unbelievable.”

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