The Fourth of July in New York City means fireworks. They’re big, they’re bright and they’re exceedingly hard to pull off.
One company knows a lot about the Herculean effort that makes these holiday spectaculars happen. Phil Grucci and his Long Island-based company, Fireworks by Grucci, have been lighting up the sky for six generations.
On July 4, they’re running shows in Montauk, Yonkers and Atlantic City — as well as in several other cities throughout the nation. They’ve got plenty of other shows planned throughout the month as well.
Grucci, the company’s CEO and creative director, joined WNYC’s Michael Hill on Morning Edition to talk about what goes into making those impressive displays happen. The transcript of their conversation below has been lightly edited for clarity.
Michael Hill: Happy Independence Day! Tell us about the preparation that goes into getting ready for the Fourth of July weekend.
Phil Grucci: So, it’s very logistics- and operations-driven, obviously. All the design of the shows is completed. And then the logistics of moving 400 pyrotechnicians from places such as New York to Hawaii, down to Florida. All the transportation of the explosives and the fireworks to different locations. We are now in 67 cities to celebrate Independence Day, and it’s driven by a lot of hard work.
You know, it’s seasonal, so it’s that peak that comes on quickly. Fortunately, we’re past COVID. So, you know, a lot of our customers, they knew they wanted to have their Independence Day displays. So they booked it with us early. So it’s a good time. We’re here; we’re ready to go.
So Phil, you mentioned 67 cities. Does that mean 67 shows?
That’s correct – they have at least three to four pyrotechnicians on them each. Some of them have as many as 20 to 30 pyrotechnicians on them.
That’s a lot. And today, of course, is the big show, as we said. What time do you even have to start today?
Well, the installation of many of our performances happened actually two to three…
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