Tonight at 10, fireworks will light up the sky above the Belize City harbour. Last year, the show was spectacular, and this year it will be better, but in a different kind of way. What does that mean? Well to find out, we had to go behind the scenes of the fireworks display. What we found was a densely designed, well-timed and well oiled machine - that's been building up for weeks for a few minutes in the night sky. Here's more.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
Fireworks, we've seen how they paint in the night sky, but this is how they look before that. Decidedly less dramatic, on the barge at the port, painstakingly rigged, tediously wired and ready for detonation. They've got al types stuffed in these cannons, and what you see here is US$20,000 worth of fireworks that have been assembled by pyrotechnic enthusiasts Joe Fuzy and Phillip Milliken.
Jules Vasquez,
How many hours have gone into preparing tonight?
Joe Fuzy,
"45, 50. That's man hours. We a re working on the computer, days and nights, and then we are working on the racks. It's very time consuming."
All those hours that vaporize in a thrilling half an hour and this year is no different.
Phillip Milliken,
"This is going to be a totally different show than we've been doing in the past. Before we had it choreographed and we did it down to the second. This year the people who are putting up the money want to see every shell burst so it's going to be, it won't be a real long show. It'll be maybe 20 to 25 minutes but you'll actually be able to see, until we get to the finale, every shell burst and it's going to be awfully amazing. Some of them are unbelievable.
This year's show I feel will be much more spectacular because we've brought in different products along with the sixteen inch. And I mean by products, we brought in different types of shells that are new, they hadn't been on the market or we couldn't afford them. Fireworks are very very expensive and this year we just said to the hell with it, let's just see what some of this stuff looks like."
And it's all controlled by this switching box - that triggers these fuses which are wired in series - all detonated by this electronic matches - that work like this: push a button here and it blows here. And this is the prize piece in tonight's fireworks show, it is 57 pounds of pure fireworks - the biggest this crew has ever detonated. This is the canon it will go in and it has to be packed in this box packed with sand for safety because of the massive recoil. It's an extraordinary explosive and tucked inside, you get a sense of how power it is.
Phillip Milliken,
"Well for the first time we're actually going up to as far as 16 inch diameter shells. Just one shell's a 16 inch diameter, it weighs 57 pounds, and will go up to about 1,000 feet with a spread of a quarter of a mile."
And while we will get a spectacular show - on land, a quarter mile out on the barge, they have a show and a thrill all their own.
Joe Fuzy,
"Well I've never experienced anything like this. It takes us hours and hours to come down after the show but just the first button and then the last one goes off, in between there your feet aren't even touching the barge. Its like you're walking in the air. Everything is racing through you."
Phillip Milliken,
"Yeah you do get a hell of an adrenaline buzz. Its good fun."
Joe Fuzy,
"It's the most fun you can have with your clothes on, yeah."
The fireworks are sponsored by the Bowen Group of Companies. They did a similar show last night in San Pedro to rave reviews. Again, tonight's fireworks starts at 10, and you can see them replayed tomorrow morning at 10 here on Channel 7.