Days of preparation go into fireworks show

Monday night's fireworks display over the Great South Bay will last 20 minutes. But it took two days of work by a crew of six to set up.

To prepare for the second annual Go 4th on the Bay Fireworks and another show Friday night in Southampton, the Fireworks by Grucci team spent Thursday setting up their equipment on a rented barge in East Quogue and Friday loading shells into the forest of black fiberglass tubes mounted on the deck.

The displays in Southampton and off Bay Shore are National Class shows, which cost $40,000 to $60,000. So the same equipment was mounted on the barge for both events and the tubes reloaded by a second crew for Monday night's display.

On Friday, the 25-by-60-foot barge was cordoned off with yellow caution tape while a banner on its side warned "Fireworks -- Stay Clear."

On the steel deck, metal frames held clusters of fiberglass tubes -- called guns by the crew -- pointing skyward with colored wires radiating from them to central connection boxes, themselves linked by cables to two control boxes set up on a corner of the vessel.

Grucci employees carried cardboard boxes with plastic-wrapped round and pear-shaped shells 4 to 6 inches in diameter from a rented truck onto the barge, connected them to fuses and wires and lowered them into the guns.

As for how many shells are fired during the show, Phil Butler, a producer for the 161-year-old Brookhaven-based company, said "we never talk about that. The eye will tell you if it's a good show or not. You wouldn't ask Michelangelo how many buckets of paint he used on the Sistine Chapel." But he did say that more than 6,000 fireworks effects would be used. "What dictates what we fire is the music" simulcast on local radio stations.

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The shells are fired by one operator using the two control boards shielded by plywood boards. "It's quite intense," Butler said. "It's not for the fainthearted to be on that barge."

The loading and Friday night show were supervised by Tom Guida of Ridge, chief pyrotechnician of the crew and a 27-year company veteran, who joined Grucci because, not surprisingly, "I like to see fireworks shows."

During the show, he's on the barge keeping an eye on everything while one of his crew members fires the shells. That is done by touching each numbered button in turn with an electric stylus and then pushing a separate firing button in time with cues set to the music which are relayed to the firing employee through a headset.

The shells are loaded in accordance with the schematic diagram developed by the top people in the company. Some of the guns are vertical and some are angled to get the proper spread across the sky.

Guida says he never gets tired of setting up and watching the displays. "This is Christmas for me," he said.

ASHAROKEN FIREWORKS SHOW

Limited viewing, closest public viewing is Crab Meadow Beach. No standing or parking within Village of Asharoken, event accessible to village residents only.

WHEN & WHERE 9:15 p.m., Asharoken Beach, off Eatons Neck Road, Asharoken

INFO 631-261-7098, asharoken.com

BEST VIEWING The fireworks show is for residents. Asharoken doesn't have parking for nonresidents but you may be able to watch from afar.

ADMISSION is free

STAR SPANGLED BLAST AT BALD HILL

Amphitheater seating fills quickly for this concert, but there's plenty of lawn space. So, bring a chair or blanket for this rain-or-shine event. Sorry, no food or drinks allowed.

WHEN & WHERE 9:30 p.m.

(concert starts at 7:30 p.m., rain or shine), Brookhaven Amphitheater, Bald Hill, Patchogue-Mt. Sinai Road/County Road 83, Farmingville

INFO 631-732-4011, 631-854-4949, Emily at 631-854-4980, brookhaven.org

BEST VIEWING Inside the park,

parking gates open at 4:30 p.m., amphitheater opens at 5:30 p.m.

STARS OVER MONTAUK

WHEN | WHERE 9:15 p.m.

Umbrella Beach, Old Montauk Highway, quarter-mile west of Main Village area, Montauk

INFO 631-668-2428

BEST VIEWING On the beach, but can be seen from the middle of town.