Fireworks by Grucci will fire an eight-minute synchronized display at 9 p.m. Saturday from 15 rooftops across the Las Vegas Valley, turning the sky over Las Vegas into a timed celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary.
For viewers in Las Vegas, the show is meant to be free and immediate: a holiday display that starts together, lasts eight minutes and stretches across the valley instead of gathering at a single launch site. Phil Grucci said the Las Vegas show will be the company’s biggest in the nation, and he said Fireworks by Grucci will take part in more than 70 displays across the country as more than 400 pyrotechnicians work nationwide to usher in the holiday.
Phil Grucci stood atop The Venetian on Friday as workers on the roof of The Venetian Resort loaded firework shells into mortars linked by cables to a computerized firing system. That setup is a reminder that a show meant to look effortless from the ground depends on a lot of planning above it, and Eric Amoquandoh, who has worked for Fireworks by Grucci for a decade, said setting up fireworks is more complicated than it appears. “There’s a lot involved,” he said. “You have to know what you’re doing, to be able to do it right. Otherwise, you’re going to mess it up.”
The company’s pitch is as much about tradition as spectacle. Christopher Grucci said this year’s display will be even more patriotic than years past, and Phil Grucci said the company had been looking ahead to the anniversary celebration for years. He also said its biggest and best performances are known in Las Vegas. The family business dates to 1850 in Bari, Italy, before moving to the U.S. through Ellis Island, making this weekend’s display the latest link in a line that now spans five generations.
That history fits the holiday the company is marking, but the show’s scale also shows how much work sits behind a celebration that is presented as free and open to everyone. John Adams predicted on July 3, 1776, that the new United States of America would celebrate its independence with “bonfires and illuminations” for generations to come. Saturday’s display is built to honor that idea, yet it will do so through rooftop access, wiring, computers and a nationwide workforce. The next thing viewers in Las Vegas need to know is simple: at 9 p.m. Saturday, the sky lights up.
