It's a labor of fireworks love for 24th Boomsday extravaganza

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Fireworks light up the Knoxville sky during a previous Boomsday.

KNOXVILLE — Knocking down a tall five-lane bridge can't stop fireworks in Knoxville. As if there was any doubt, Boomsday returns for its 24th year over Fort Loudoun Lake.

Yes, the Labor Day weekend fireworks will include the popular waterfall sight. And yes, other shells will boom out of the water. In fact, Boomsday organizers promise there's more, not less, to this year's event. The Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corp., which presents the event, even themed the show "New Bridge, Same Big Boom."

Boomsday 2011 is Sunday, Sept. 4. The 20-minute, 20,000-shell firework show choreographed to music starts about 9:30 p.m. Pre-fireworks events that include music and food start at 1 p.m. Non-pyrotechnic events include a family fun zone and a wrestling competition that begins at 5:30 p.m.

Boomsday each year brings some 400,000 people down to the Neyland Drive-Volunteer Landing area. As almost everyone except perhaps the annual Boomsday visitor knows, the Labor Day weekend show by Pyro Shows has used the long, wide Henley Bridge as its stage. Shells fly off the bridge, in the water in front of the bridge — and in what's become the show's much-admired trademark — down the bridge in a cascading waterfall of fire and sparkles.

Enter progress. The 1932 bridge is closed for a three-year renovation. That meant moving the fireworks slightly west onto a railroad bridge.

Here's how the show will work. The fireworks will be set up on 90-foot-long flatbed railroad cars. About five cars will be used for fireworks of a 10- to 12-car train, said Pyro Shows Vice President of Operations Mike Walden. No other trains that regularly use the bridge are scheduled for Sunday traffic, Walden says.

So instead of using the five-lane, 800-foot long Henley Bridge, Pyro Shows' epicenter will be a narrower as well as shorter — about 400-feet — work space. And since the railroad bridge is lower than the Henley Bridge, fireworks will launch 50 to 75 feet lower than they have in past years. Walden predicts the average Boomsday fan won't really notice the difference.

But viewers are likely to get a more comprehensive view of the display. "The really cool thing is there is no handrail and no sidewalk (on the bridge) so you literally will be able to see what happens from the time the fireworks are lit.

"If you have always watched Boomsday from Volunteer Landing you are still going to see a great show from Volunteer Landing," says Walden. Because of the bridge location he says the usually good view of fireworks from the Thompson-Boling area of Neyland will be better than in past years.

Each year Pyro, based in LaFollette, promises surprises for the East Tennessee show in which it takes great pride. This year that surprise may just be that waterfall of fireworks. "I think that is where everyone is going to be very, very surprised," says Walden. "Hopefully it will look the same. But we are doing it in a completely different way.

"We are going to try to incorporate all the different facets of Boomsday that people have come to love and expect. Nothing has been taken out at this point ... We are convinced we can include everything and add to it."

The company is planning on using the same railroad bridge for Boomsday 2012 and then return to the new Henley Bridge in 2013.

This year's show includes a new Dollywood announcement regarding its 2012 season. What that announcement is has been a closely guarded secret, though Dollywood teases that will be the biggest in the theme park's 26-year history.

The fireworks' musical score returns both old favorites and some new choices. "In 2011, it's apparently illegal to shoot fireworks without the Katy Perry song 'Firework,' " quipped Walden.

© 2011, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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