How pyrotechnic wizards orchestrate the Macy’s 4th of July fireworks

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How pyrotechnic wizards orchestrate the Macy’s 4th of July fireworks

It is difficult for Gary Souza to go back to the traffic jams and magic candles of your variety of garden after a day of work.

“Over the years, people still say:” Oh, you work in the fireworks sector! ” You must have all kinds of fireworks in your backyard. It is sort of the last thing we want to do, ”he says Popular science.

It is somewhat ironic but understandable, because the surname Souza is synonymous with pyrotechnic magic. Their Pyro spectaculars company dates back to the early 1900s, when Manuel de Sousa immigrated to San Francisco des Azores. There, he began to build his own fireworks for local Portuguese community festivals, while teaching his family with trade secrets. Armed with the pyrotechnic “cooking book” of the Patriarch, the generations that followed the Souza family (now with a “Z”) have since extended the company to one of the main organizers of the world fireworks. Each year, Pyro Spectaculars now oversees hundreds of performances for holidays, sporting events and concerts, as well as many explosions for Hollywood. However, one of their most important and most watched events, however, is that the July 4 fireworks of the Macy have seen millions of people every summer.

Three images of fireworks exploding in the Mojave desert at night — *The pyrotechnicians will test new addments of spectacle about three times each in the desert. Credit: Macy’s*

Test in the Mojave desert

In the weeks preceding the holidays, Gary Souza and around 60 pyrotechnicans colleagues focus entirely on the finalization of the 49th annual emission of Macy. But they do not walk along the Brooklyn bridge where it will take place, and they do not balance on one of the four barges of the East river which will provide additional launch points.

“When we do our tests, we get in a dry lake bed in the Mojave region and we simply have the place for ourselves,” he explains against a brilliantly blue desert sky. “My grandfather, my uncle, my father, my family and my children – they are all here for this show. We are all here working. It’s just something that is done in your blood.”

The Souza team spent months designing, planning and raising the explosives necessary for the largest celebration of July 4 in the country. The 25 -minute show is choreographed and timed at the hundredth of a second, this year against Ahmir’s musical arrangements “Questlove” Thompson. However, before Showtime, Souza begins at a much simpler starting point.

“For me, honestly, I do it with a pen,” he says. “I will literally climb each song and their sequences and segments. I can put color markers there just to know what colors occur throughout the show. I put big post-notes along my wall of the whole show, and add these images and photographs and returned that we have.”

Once it finalizes the sequences, the Souza team enters all data in their design system to synchronize with the show’s soundtrack. From there, he can generate visualizations of each shell for performance – all 80,000 of them.

“With the more modern era of this, we can get a three -dimensional video [simulation] of the show and see how all this is linked-what angles should we place the fireworks so that they do not rush into each other, “he says.

Red and orange fireworks exploding in the desert at night — *The Macy’s show is synchronized using kilometers of wiring between the thousands of fireworks balls. Credit: Macy’s*

A fireworks fire in the shape of a purple jellyfish explodes at night in the desert — *The Macy’s show is synchronized using kilometers of wiring between the thousands of fireworks balls. Credit: Macy’s*

New additions for 2025

Some elements of Macy’s show are a fact. The “Golden Mile” final function that extends over the entire Brooklyn bridge is a long -standing fans favorite, and the Souza team has its essentially memorized configuration and execution. Some new pieces are another story.

“Real fireworks areas are obtained from the best designers and manufacturers around the world. They tend to be much more consistent and reliable in their duration, timing, brilliance, effect, ”explains Souza. “It definitely facilitates a little more from our part with what the spectacle looks like.”

But unlike your fire tent tent packages, the organizers do not have many additional tricks to save for their ultra costly platforms. The organizers of Macy would not cite a specific price for the show, preferring to call it a “gift to America”.

“The cost for this is not a real area of interest for us,” said Will Coss, producer and vice-president and vice-president of Macy Brandhed Entertainment, in Macy, Popular science.

Although it varies depending on the design, Souza believes that any addition to the show generally receives approximately three test launches in the Mojave to assess details such as launch speed, height and duration. These new elements made specifically for the 2025 show include a cascade of 1400 custom feet in Portugal which will take place under the bridge. But a design is particularly special for Souza this year.

“We are going to be a yellow stroboscopic cascade that will fall slowly, sparkling towards the water 1,600 feet wide. This is something I have been working on for 10 years, ”he says. “We made it a red and white and a solid red. We did something in a rainbow, but I have [always] I wanted something in a sparkling lemon or lime effect. »»

*A view of the fireworks of New York Macy celebrating the 248th day of the United States independence on July 04, 2024 in Hoboken, New Jersey. Credit: Roy Rochlin / Getty Images*

“ Biggest and better ”

While Souza and Crew end in the Mojave, a separate team spends about two weeks in New York to prepare for the big evening. The tens of thousands of effects each require their own unique position on the deck and the barges – a number which could not be lit individually by hand. Fortunately, lighting games have long left for Souza experts.

“Forty years ago, when we started to make the spectacle of Macy, we were the first to cause electronic shooting equipment,” he said. “”[Today] We have kilometers of wires and connections and junctions. The bridge has more than 240 different shooting locations, 12 computers synchronizing all together. »»

Even all the required electronic rig has evolved. This year will include a new shooting system capable of launching shells at a faster than ever pace, as well as additions to allow horizontal launches from the bridge, instead of simple vertical ignitions. The 49th annual show also marks the first time that Macy’s will incorporate the cartography of video projection on the east and west towers of the Brooklyn Bridge, offering the production of additional images.

Despite months of meticulous planning, there will always be uncontrollable variables that require surveillance. Rain is still a concern, but most of today’s professional fireworks are now relatively badly resistant.

“The wind is always one thing that we have to take into consideration. We work with the city of New York and the fire service to measure the wind speed at the time of the show,” explains Souza, adding that they are also working with the unit of the firefighters’ explosives to coordinate the safety zones throughout the spectacle space.

But even after all the preparation, only one thing counts when millions of eyes are on Gotham this July 4.

“It is really a one -year process, you just have to understand what would be the best way to make it bigger and better than the last time,” says Souza.