SAN DIEGO — In just two days, hundreds of thousands of eyes will be watching the San Diego skies for the annual Big Bay Boom.
Pyrotechnicians are busy this weekend, loading the barges with thousands of fireworks.
One of them is Sam Bruggema with Pyro Spectaculars, who has produced fireworks shows for 43 years – none bigger than the Big Bay Boom. His crew is responsible for setting up around 5,000 fireworks that will launch from four barges.
It took about eight months of preparation for a show that will last about 18 minutes. Bruggema says this year included unique challenges with storage and staffing shortages.
“Put out all points bulletin to all my crew – bring your friends. We had no facility big enough to store all this stuff up till three weeks ago. It was hard to get anything processed through with the county,” he said.
Bruggema is promising this year’s Big Bay Boom will include pyrotechnics that no one has ever seen before.
“There’s some neat stuff that normally never gets into most shows, well Big Bay gets a lot of great stuff and that’s what we’ll have,” he said.
Bruggema says the payoff is the crowd’s reaction.
“That’s why people like me, the show producers, really build a lot into the show to make it cool and intricate, so people don’t walk out of there just thinking the finale’s the greatest thing they ever saw, because I put as much time into like the first two minutes, as I do like the last four minutes,” he said.
Be sure to watch Big Bay Boom coverage on FOX 5 San Diego starting at 8 p.m. this Fourth of July.
