COLUMBUS, Ohio — For the last 39 years, Earl Burke has been part of making the magic happen for Red, White & BOOM! in downtown Columbus.
"We must be doing something right because everybody's still coming down to see it,” he said.
This year, festivities kick off at 11 a.m. with a street festival happening all day long. At 5:30 p.m., there’s a one-mile parade route starting on the Main Street Bridge and wrapping up at the corner of Front Street and Spring Street. The main event, the BOOM! fireworks show will start at 10 p.m.
Each year, Burke said the months and months of planning that goes into this event starts with safety.
"We have to make sure that our people are safe down here working on the site and the people around the festival are safe,” he said.
Burke and his team work to bring the best and brightest displays to the city.
"What you don't want to do is play the same music all the time and the same shells and somebody goes, 'I don't want to go downtown. It's going to be the same that I saw last year',” he said.
Burke added that a lot goes into the design of the show.
"Every shell can do something different. One shell here doesn't actually show as one shell in the sky. It could be 15-20 projectiles inside here to create a design and you want it to match the soundtrack… there will be things that you see that we've mixed and matched, we're trying to fill the whole sky,” he said.
The show lasts about 25 minutes, according to Burke, with an ending he said you won’t want to miss.
"Obviously everybody loves a finale, which, because it's Red White & BOOM!, it will be very loud,” Burke said.
When it comes to planning ahead, Burke suggests showing up early to claim your viewing spot for the show.
"Remember, half a million of your friends are coming down here to watch the same show you want to see,” Burke said.
After nearly four decades of bringing the boom, Burke said it’s the people that keep him coming back each year.
"When you shoot a show and you hear the roars and the laughs and you see the kids having fun out here,” he said.
That enjoyment is his driving force each year and will be for years to come.
"I'm going to come back and do something better, and that makes it worthwhile,” Burke said.