Fireworks companies left on sidelines

The annual Big Bay Boom over San Diego will be quiet this year. The skies over Lake Tahoe, home to the Lights on the Lake celebration, will be dark.

Also falling silent will be the IPL Downtown Freedom Blast in Indianapolis; the Patriots Point Blast in Charleston, South Carolina; and the Legacy Blast in Lee’s Summit, Mo.

Across the country, the coronavirus pandemic has brought to a halt a tradition of summer: Fourth of July fireworks.

As many as 80% of community fireworks displays in large cities and small rural towns have been canceled this year over fear that they would create a social distancing nightmare.

For the 150 companies across the country that thrill spectators with their booming, colorful explosions in the skies, the two weeks around the July Fourth holiday make up about three-quarters of their revenue. The numerous cancellations this year, they say, are taking a significant financial toll on their businesses, many of them family owned for generations.

With July Fourth falling on a weekend, giving communities extra days to host events, “we were looking at a record year,” said James Souza, the fifth generation of his family to operate Pyro Spectaculars by Souza from California. “But of the 400 shows we expected to do around the holiday, we’ll be lucky if we do 40,” he said, noting that he had been receiving daily calls with cancellations or program changes from event planners.

Included in the 40 shows that Souza will produce this year are the Mount Rushmore show in South Dakota and, for the 36th consecutive year, the Macy’s fireworks show in New York City. The Macy’s show has been changed to five-minute displays in undisclosed locations throughout the week that are designed to be watched from outside without leaving home. The grand finale on July Fourth, also from an undisclosed location, will be televised.

“I’ve had days where I’ve lost $150,000 of business from cancellations,” said Roberto Sorgi, the fifth generation of the family that runs American Fireworks in Hudson, Ohio.

“We’re going to lose 50 to 75% of our business from the Fourth of July, and there are no clear signs of when concerts or mass gatherings will be allowed again, so we may not have a third or fourth quarter this year. It is a very scary road ahead for all of us.”

Most of the fireworks companies received money through the federal Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. But they said it wasn’t enough.

The industry hopes Congress will earmark $175 million for it in another stimulus bill, if one is passed.