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StumbleStrip fireworks: 7 minutes, 96,000 aerial bursts, $500,000
Las Vegas ready to light fuse on nation’s largest New Year’s Eve pyrotechnic display
Leila Navidi / Las Vegas Sun
Pyrotechnicians from Fireworks by Grucci, a company based in Long Island, New York, set up the fireworks for New Year’s Eve on the roof of Treasure Island in Las Vegas Wednesday, December 30, 2009.
Thursday, Dec. 31, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.
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The Black Eyed Peas won’t be the only ones bringing some “Boom Boom Pow” to the Las Vegas Strip on New Year’s Eve. So will Fireworks by Grucci.
The 315,000 expected visitors to the Strip will be watching the largest fireworks show in the country at midnight, while the Black Eyed Peas perform at the Luxor.
Felix J. Grucci Jr., executive vice president and CFO of New York-based Fireworks by Grucci, said his favorite part of the fireworks show is immediately after the finale.
“You can hear the din of the crowd coming up,” Grucci said on Wednesday. “That’s the fun part.”
The celebration on the Strip, dubbed America’s Party, is presented by Las Vegas Events, a not-for-profit special events agency funded by hotel room taxes. This year’s fireworks cost $500,000.
The New Year’s show, which will last 7 minutes, 11 seconds, will feature about 96,000 aerial bursts launched from the rooftops of seven casinos along the Strip.
The casinos are the MGM Grand, Planet Hollywood, Aria, Caesars Palace, Treasure Island, The Venetian and the 1,149-foot Stratosphere, which is being rigged with fireworks to look like a giant pinwheel.
Downtown, the Fremont Street Experience party will feature TributePalooza, a collection of classic rock acts, and a separate fireworks show.
Nearly a year of planning goes into the New Year’s fireworks show on the Strip. Designers begin choreographing the display in late spring, Grucci said.
Sixty-five pyrotechnicians have been setting up the fireworks since Sunday, he said.
On the roof of Treasure Island, where Grucci surveyed part of his crew on Wednesday afternoon, between 12,000 and 14,000 fireworks have been prepared for launch.
Anthony Magno, who works for Fireworks by Grucci, will be monitoring the fireworks at Treasure Island.
“For the purposes of safety, we want to make sure everything is angled properly,” Magno said. “For safety, we spare no cost, no time.”
Michael Mack, a spokesman for Las Vegas Events, said wind is the biggest concern for the show, but the weather is not expected to be a problem.
Grucci will be watching the show from the roof of the Rio, where he’ll be able to see the entire Strip and monitor the event.
This will be the sixth time Grucci has been hired for Las Vegas’ New Year’s fireworks display.
The company also puts on Las Vegas’ Fourth of July shows and engineered the fireworks display for the opening of Aria at CityCenter.
Grucci is putting on at least nine other shows across the U.S. and around the world for New Year’s Eve, including shows in Sacramento, Calif.; Palm Beach, Fla.; Dublin, Ireland; and Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
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Yay!!!!!!! Half the price of the cruddy fireworks for the 5 previous years. Glad to see the fireworks shoot off the rooftops again. I hated last years display on the garage parking top floors barely hitting the rooftops heights of the hotels.
Jeez all that money for seven minutes of fireworks? why not three and a half minutes at half the price, and use the remaining money for benefits to those who got layed off..
It's paid by hotel room taxes. From the amount visitors are paying for rooms this week, they deserve a great fireworks display for New Years Eve.
The Luxor is a dump!
"why not three and a half minutes at half the"
And why not keep it as is and environprotector stops complaining for once!!!
Rolling, what does that have to do with the fireworks show? You living at the Luxor now?
Happy New Years everyone!
Benefits for those that got laid off? You get 2 years of unemployment and want more?
You guys want tourist to pay for everything. If you stop putting on a show to give more welfare, why would we even come there?
Newsflash, its not all about you.
Hope everyone has a safe and happy new year.. Peace out!
Bad for the environment and wasteful use of finite resources. Why can't we have a Green NYE? with formations of electric cars going up and down the strip and a compost pile competition?
Wish I were in Vegas to watch the fireworks! Happy New Year Las Vegas, see you next month!
Grandma, I can think of other things to do with the fireworks and that bunch's anatomy...
their is somthing spituial about the fireworks going off on top of hotel on the strip...Last year was not so spitrital.
I just saw on TV that every miniute of the day two million people click on to a porn site.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm same population as metro Vegas/
they should get all that back room taxes that Hotels.com/Expedia/Trip Res isn't paying and get better fireworks that last 25minutes plus.
By the looks of things, a room on an upper floor of the Palazzo would do just fine around midnight!
So I take it from your joyous attitude that you'll stay home?
Fireworks is also very war-like, rockets red glare, bombs bursting in air...it is a bad influence on children and pets..
We had a nice little New Year's eve show at the Del Rio Club in Oildale, Calif. Bobby Durham band played (He used to play L.V. with Buck Owens). They saved half a million by not buying the fireworks. Did have some of those little cardboard horn things, Mardis Gras beads and some cardboard tiaras for the girls. Beers were $2.00, My drink of choice, Diet Coke, $1.00. We did watch you guys on the big screen! Y'all missed a great time!
LOL, it was a great show last night! Kudos to all involved. Reading all the dismal posts on this ad you wonder about some people. Are they miserable in their skin and hope to destroy others around them? Move to California! Just leave. And good riddance! For the fun people and people with actual friends, Happy New Year! Hope this year brings good health and prosperity to you and your family!
Reality check everyone - tourists come to LV because we put on this great/ hell of a show! Stop or slow down the show and they slow/ stop coming... And yes we could hire teachers, etc but what would we be really be fixing?
i.e. - We hire/ pay more to teachers only for the tourists to slow down due to lack of crazy fireworks show (over the top LV entertainment/ parties, etc) which means the casinos start laying off even more which means fewer children in the schools since people will most likely move out of LV to find work... teachers to be laid off soon there after...
Vegas is doing a great job - the show must go on!
VegasVegas - that pic is just people having fun... and that cesspool is why we dont have income taxes among other perks... NY has the ball, we have the strip and the massive fireworks show... Love it or hate it but I understand what your saying...
Clearly, this 500k should have went to the following good causes:
1) The Wynn dealers who have to share tips with supervisors
2) The poor dealers at other MGM properties negatively impacted by the opening of city center
3) Call girls working for 50% discounts
4) LV Firemen working for peanuts
5) Any other LV service staff whining about poor tips
Why not just double the 500,000 and make it a million... Then disperse it to all the whining asses on here to quit whining....Whoopee Happy New Year....Besides if a ball is what makes New york city the place to be on New Years then why do over 300,000 come to Vegas...I would say that Vegas doesnt need a ball since Vegas is the place to party on New Years..So they can stick that ball where the sun doesnt shine.....
New Years in Vegas: 500,000 unemployed people gather to watch their hopes drop.
Congrats to Las Vegas for the fantastic fireworks! We flew in on Weds. We stayed and played on the Strip and rang in the new year at Flamingo and LV Blvd. The crowd was well behaved, friendly and having fun. We didn't notice an odor, so not sure what the report was about. Wishing Vegas the best in 2010!
asleepatawheel - agreed! & glad to hear you enjoyed our party kacymur
"The pyrotechnic show will display the letters LV along with such effects as blue comets, a golden kamuro, silver palm trees and multicolored peacock tails."
I didnt see no LV letters in the firework show .. still better then when they shot them off from the streets last year