Boomsday: What of the waterfall?

Photo by Saul Young // Buy this photo

Fireworks illuminate the night sky in downtown Knoxville along with the waters of Fort Loudoun Lake Sunday evening during Boomsday.

Photo by Saul Young

Fireworks illuminate the night sky in downtown Knoxville along with the waters of Fort Loudoun Lake Sunday evening during Boomsday.

Fireworks shoot up from the waters for Fort Loudoun Lake during the annual Labor Day weekend Boomsday fireworks show in Downtown Knoxville on Sunday, Sept. 6, 2009.

KNOXVILLE — Want to see Boomsday's traditional and gorgeous waterfall of fireworks cascade off the Henley Bridge once again? Best get to the Volunteer Landing/Neyland Drive waterfront on Sunday, Sept. 5. Just find your spot with another 400,000 or so pyrotechnic-loving people celebrating the end of summer.

Because you may not see that waterfall of pyro beauty for the next one to three years.

Starting in January 2011 the Henley Bridge - the focal launch for Boomsday fireworks and a requirement to create the waterfall - closes for 30 to 36 months. The 1932 bridge will be dismantled and rebuilt. That means odds are extremely good the waterfall - a Boomsday highlight for years - won't happen while the bridge is shut down.

There'll still be Boomsday, but the fireworks show will change during the bridge work. Pyro Shows of LaFollette, which creates the 20-minute fireworks show, hasn't finalized those future plans. But CEO and President Lansden Hill says it's likely the company come 2011 will launch fireworks from large barges along the Tennessee River.

It's possible, but doesn't sound too probable, the waterfall might appear for at least one September while the bridge is closed. That depends on how much of the bridge is standing each fall and what the contractor for the work will allow, Hill says.

"Everything we can do at Boomsday off the bridge we can do from barges in the river except the waterfall. For that you just got to have the bridge," says Hill. "We don't know that we won't have the waterfall at least one of the three years. But I think it's pretty solid that there won't be a waterfall from the Henley Bridge at some point during the repair."

So now is the time to enjoy the 2010 version of Boomsday, complete with that waterfall effect.

Fireworks enthusiasts should expect the lights and sounds they've enjoyed from past events with some changes here and there. Fireworks for the 23rd annual Boomsday start about 9:30 p.m. and are choreographed to a soundtrack broadcast over Star 102.1 FM radio. More than 20,000 fireworks effects and shells will create the show, said Pyro Vice President of Operations Mike Walden.

This year's fireworks won't launch from Baptist Hospital since that building is vacant. Fireworks will launch from the river and, of course, the Henley Bridge.

While fireworks don't begin until evening, the Boomsday Festival opens with a family fun zone and food at 1 p.m. Neyland Drive from Walnut Street to Lake Loudon Boulevard is closed to vehicle traffic for the event.

The Red Bull TNT MX Demos show freestyle motocross tricks at Neyland's west end. Nine-time X Games medalist Tommy Clowers, as well as competitors Myles Richmond and Destin Cantrell will demonstrate jumps and tricks.

While there's food to buy, some is free. Little Debbie is giving out samples of its football brownies. The Krystal Crave Cruiser rolls into town to hand out its chicken wings.

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