July 4, 2024 was our biggest show fired to date with approximately 150 cakes out in the field and 160 individual mortars. Similar to last year, our show consisted of three firing sections: left, center, and right. The left section consisted of two 18 cue Ignite modules for a total of 36 cues. The right section also had two 18 cue Ignite modules. Our center section was upgraded this year by including a new 36 cue Ignite module along with one 18 cue Ignite module for a total of 54 cues. The sections were about 25-30 feet apart.
This year was our first going directly into the cakes with MJG Firewire initiators. It took a little practice poking each cake, but in the end we got the hang of it and had a great success rate with only about 5 cakes not firing likely due to some error on our end. All of the cakes were glued down to boards for added security.
The vast majority of our items were purchased at Wholesale Fireworks in Hubbard, Ohio. We bought everything back in February while they were having their yearly early bird special. Of note is Unstoppable, a 9 shot NOAB with massive breaks. It can be seen going off in the video along with Paint the Sky, an awesome 500 gram step cake at 3:00.
We were very impressed with the larger 500 gram big break items this year. Some noteworthy ones include D-Day, Absolutely Awesome, Night Breaker and Polaris. One of my favorite sequences in the show was when Howler Monkey led directly into the massive breaks from Absolutely Awesome at about 7:11.
A few items were purchased from Kneppy’s Fireworks in Morrisdale, PA, including Hyper Beast, a pro line compound cake by Raccoon Fireworks. Hyper Beast was a total show stopper filling the sky with massive white brocade crowns and even some decent salutes at the very end. It can be seen in the video at 22:45.
We ended the show with (4) 100 shot titanium salute cakes purchased from Kellner’s Fireworks in Harrisville, PA which were loud and impressive for 1.4g professional cakes.
Happy 4th of July and enjoy the show!