by Anura Guruge
on August 14, 2022
Click images to ENLARGE.
First & foremost, it has to noted that there was hardly anyone there for these Saturday, August 13, 2022, 9pm, fireworks. It was deserted. When the fireworks started there was at MOST 6 boats south of the bandstand. Usually that section of the bay is packed (& it was amusing that one BIG partyboat (i.e., pontoon) turned around & headed back under the bridge DURING the fireworks. Never seen that. I doubt if there were 500 people on shore for these fireworks. There was NO traffic. NO TRAFFIC whatsoever. The road that I park on (normally bumper-to-bumper) was empty. I was THE ONLY car parked! There was ONLY ONE police cruiser in total. Even he didn’t have much to do. I asked him why there wasn’t more people. He speculated that people might NOT have known! Strange. ‘Old Home Week’. That was fairly well publicized & known — & most folks know we have fireworks on the Saturday. Maybe they had forgotten over the COVID hiatus.
All said, the lack of crowds (& boats) was the biggest takeaway from this firework display. It was kind of weird. A firework display to a near empty ‘stand’. [By the way, I didn’t find out the name of the group that played on the docks prior to the fireworks — but, they were good. I might have gone earlier to hear more of them.]
I have a personal adage that ALL public firework displays are GOOD (by definition). Of course, there is levels of goodness & on that scale last night’s fireworks didn’t score that great. I am sorry to say that they were kind of lame. I might even venture to say flaccid & I do not say that lightly.
The fireworks lasted exactly 20 minutes. Spot on. Started sharp on time. 90% was just plain, common or garden starbursts fired sporadically — one could even say halfheartedly. The barge from which the fireworks are set off was also moored much further out in the way than usual. It is possible that they were concerned that hot debris might fall on the newly renovated bandstand. That the bursts were further away made them even less dramatic. All in all it was not great. Even the always much anticipated ‘grand finale‘ wasn’t that great. It was OK. Nothing to write home about.
After this year’s ‘July 4th’ Alton fireworks I said this:
Alas, that was not the case. Well, let’s hope we have better shows in Alton next Summer.
