LOUISVILLE, Ky. — This year's Thunder Over Louisville firework show won't have the backdrop of the Ohio River and the large crowds on the waterfront.
"It's a little bit different," Ralph Piacquadio, the firework show designer, said. "You're not looking at a big bridge. You're not looking at barges with a big open sky over the river. But it's still Thunder."
Instead, Piacquadio, a Zambelli Fireworks design team member, is tasked with designing a made-for-TV spectable, which will shoot off fireworks at five different remote locations around the Louisville area.
"When you start moving around into five locations, you have all those restrictions and things to take into account," he said. "So it's really a completely fresh look on the design side. Challenging for sure, but we looked forward to it."
Piacquadio does have experience with multiple sites, which he said are coordinated using a GPS synchronization program. He said his largest show was in Guangzhou, China, where there were 15 to 17 launch sites that he had to coordinate.
He said this year's fireworks show will feature around 8,000 pounds of fireworks, and while it will be different, Piacquadio promises it will still be a sight to see, even if people are watching from home on television.
"We watched sports teams and everything else this year in a little bit of a different format, but it was still there and that was the important thing," he said. "So Thunder's back. Thunder's here tomorrow night. Enjoy the show."
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