Skip to main content

Chicago area fireworks company hurt by canceled 4th of July displays

NewsColony
Chicago area fireworks company hurt by canceled 4th of July displays

The annual 4th of July fireworks show in Itasca is one of the largest in the Chicago area. It’s carefully choreographed to music as a crowd of about 25,000 people watch from the lawn – but not this year.

RELATED: Fireworks 2020: 4th of July Chicago area shows, events

“Until large gatherings can happen again, the firework industry is not going to survive,” said Julie Heckman, with the American Pyrotechnics Association.

With the cancellation of just about any even that draws a large crowd, the fireworks that accompany those events are also canceled, including the downtown shows at Navy Pier and at Bulls games.

It is a huge problem for small, family-owned fireworks companies like Melrose Pyrotechnics, which has been producing the White Sox fireworks since they started in business 60 years ago.

“We have half a million pounds of explosives we have to store,” owner Mike Cartolano said. “We don’t get a do-over.”

According to industry experts, about 80 percent of the fireworks business for the entire year falls on one day: July 4th.

Nearly all Independence Day shows are cancelled this year, so that means fireworks companies have to store their product under strict guidance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. It’s an expensive proposition considering they have little income this year.

“The small family businesses that make up the industry are just crippled,” said Heckman.

RELATED: Chicago fireworks complaint calls increase by 6,200 from last year, OEMC says

The American Pyrotechnics Association is lobbying Congress to provide financial relief to companies.

Melrose, which has won numerous international awards, is based in northwest Indiana and has 35 full-time employees. It is fourth generation family-owned. They do it because they love it, and they hope to be able to continue doing it.

“We just wanna get back in the game,” Cartolano said. “We love doing what we do. We love entertaining.”

Melrose spent 60 hours producing the show in Itasca this year. They finished in March, just before the shutdown. Now, they have to hope it stays current for next year.

Copyright © 2020 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.

Source: ABC Chicago

The post Chicago area fireworks company hurt by canceled 4th of July displays appeared first on NewsColony.
NewsColony



source https://newscolony.com/chicago-area-fireworks-company-hurt-by-canceled-4th-of-july-displays/

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Volunteers book hotel room for homeless man with SingapoRediscovers vouchers

NewsColony Volunteers book hotel room for homeless man with SingapoRediscovers vouchers © The Independent Singapore Singapore — A group of volunteers from the Mummy Yummy Singapore welfare organisation donated their SingapoRediscovers Vouchers to book a hotel room for a homeless man. The man, who was identified as Jayden, did not have a place to live while waiting for the Housing Board (HDB) to allocate him a rental flat. In a Facebook post on Mummy Yummy Singapore’s page on Wednesday (Dec 16), the volunteers said: “We used our $100 Rediscover Singapore vouchers to redeem hotel stay for him and successfully booked 9 days worth of stay at 3 days per voucher.” They added that they were unable to book a longer stay because of higher hotel rates over Christmas and New Year. The volunteers hoped that they would be able to bridge Jayden’s stay until he got a flat. “Thanks our government for giving us these vouchers which in return we can put them to good use for people in need,” th...

Chinese stars moonlighting as live-streamers

NewsColony Chinese stars moonlighting as live-streamers Li JIaqi and Yang Mi joined forces to sell products online during coronavirus, blurring the boundaries between conventional celebrities and live streamers. Photo: @TrendingWeibo/Twitter The line between Chinese celebrities and live streamers continues to blur these days. Luxury brands are expanding their pool of friend-of-the-brand endorsements with top live streamers – Louis Vuitton, for example, tapped both actress Song Jia and “lipstick king” live streamer Li Jiaqi for its much anticipated 520 Chinese Valentine’s Day campaign. Celebrities, actors and singers are jumping on the bandwagon to test out their commercial values on e-commerce platforms, with Yang Mi, Li Xiaolu and Michelle Ye Xuan just a few of the screen stars moonlighting on live streaming portals including Taobao, TikTok and Red Book. So why are Chinese celebrities so eager to embrace the battlefield of live streaming e-commerce, and how are they getting on so...

90 Day Fiance: How To Watch Happily Ever After & B90 Strikes Back

NewsColony 90 Day Fiance: How To Watch Happily Ever After & B90 Strikes Back After the runaway success of 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days , TLC is blessing us with more 90 Day Fiancé spin-offs. This summer, 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way , B90 Strikes Back , and 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After? will all be on the air. Here is when to watch each of them: 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way premiered on June 1, but there is plenty of drama still ahead. The show airs on TLC on Monday nights at 9pm EST, and the third episode is scheduled for June 15. TLC is running reruns regularly, and you can always catch up online on several streaming services . 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way reverses the original concept of 90 Day Fiancé, where people travel from around the world to the United States to meet and marry their partners. Instead, people from the United States travel to meet and marry their partners in other countries. The season 2 cast includes season 1 fan favorites Jenny a...