Setup is underway for Central PA 4th Fest’s fireworks show. Get a behind-the-scenes look

Traditionally, people celebrate Independence Day with outdoor parties, parades and, of course, fireworks. Planning for such parties may not happen until the week before. But for the Central PA 4th Fest , planning for the 2024 fireworks display began shortly after last year’s celebration ended.

For about 20 years David Benigni, of Starfire Corporation, has volunteered and helped with the 4th Fest fireworks, one of the largest fireworks displays in the state. It’s become a family tradition. Putting on the fireworks display doesn’t happen overnight. It takes months of planning and set up alone can take one to two weeks, he said.

“After the Fourth of July is over, everybody wants to take a big breath, you know, take a rest. You just gotta jump right back into it because you got to start getting ready,” Benigni said.

A choreographed show

The fireworks display is choreographed, meaning it is synced up with music that is played on speakers and the radio station, 99.5 The Bus. Step One in the planning process is picking out the songs, which a person with the Central PA 4th Fest does. Another fireworks professional aligns certain fireworks with songs, and plan out what the show will be like, both visually and audibly.

Musical planning for this year’s show began in late 2023. Each firework is intentionally handpicked for the show through that process.

“The choreographer actually listens to music and starts deciding what shells go with the music and what kind of patterns they want to do and scenes they want to do in the air. So he actually will design it, when he designs it that generates basically what kind of products we need to buy,” Benigni said.

Some fireworks are purchased in the United States, others are brought in from places like Spain and China. And because fireworks are explosives, they have to be sent here via boat rather than a plane, which adds extra travel time.

All of the items will go to the Starfire Corporation plant in Carrolltown. Once the show is designed, Benigni said they’ll go through the show and pull each firework shell needed. They’ll then label each firework because they’ll need to be in a specific order and re-box the shells.

Everything is sent out in a box truck. There are more than 30 racks that are also brought up and put together. The racks have large tubes on them, which you put the shells in. Benigni said they get the boxes out and make sure they have the correct “address” shown on the label, and start placing them in the tubes. The fireworks then connect to a rail.

An electric match is connected between them, which is what ignites the firework once electricity is applied to it. A firing system connects to the rail and is wired to a computer system, which sends signals on which shells need to be lit and when, Benigni said.

There are three sections behind Medlar Field where they’re setting the racks up. In total, they have about 15,000 feet of cable that goes into putting it all together.

On Monday, Benigni said they had been there for three days working to get things set up and even worked until midnight one of the days. Some shows can be set up the day of, but not Central PA 4th Fest.

“State College is pretty unique from the standpoint that we’re the number one or number two biggest show in the … state. Some of the smaller community shows, they’ll come in early in the morning, set it up and then clean it up and it’ll be done,” he said. “After we shot the show last year, it took us two days to clean up.”

What to expect

The show will have different sizes of fireworks that will be set off to music throughout the show and will be coordinated so viewers can see them But only a handful of people know exactly what the show is like — and Benigni isn’t going to give anything away.

“I’ve heard the soundtrack and I haven’t shared it with anybody else, even the folks who work here. Even though we set this up, it’s a new experience,” he said. “Because I’m on some of the back-end stuff, I need to know what’s going on, so I’ve listened to it. … I don’t like to ruin it, it should be a surprise.”

In general, he said to expect some classics and traditional patriotic songs with a mix of other things to “appeal to the generations.”

He compared setting up and running the display to a concert. There are people behind the scenes running the electrical stuff, sound, lighting and more — things the audience doesn’t always see. He’ll be watching the show but he’s also running the computer system and making sure things run smoothly.

The Central PA 4th Fest website says each year the display includes about 130-170 different shells. Benigni said they’ll have approximately 7,000 shots this year. The website states the finale features an average of 50 shells per second.

And what makes a great finale? Benigni said that really comes down to a personal preference.

“Some people just want to see a finale with tons and tons of stuff in the air. … There’s always a pro and there’s always a con. There’s a lot of stuff in the air but there’s also a lot of smoke in the air, so it drowns out some of the colors. So there’s a balance there,” he said. “You want a finale that looks good, you want the colors to show through, but you also want to fill the sky and that’s what we shoot to do.”

The Central PA 4th Fest fireworks will begin at 9:45 p.m. Thursday at Medlar Field at Penn State’s campus on the corner of Curtin and Porter roads, University Park. Tickets are required for parking in the lots and for VIP entry inside of the baseball stadium. Festivities outside of Medlar Field are free.

There will also be walk-in lawn viewing for the fireworks located in Lot 31 on a first-come, first-served basis, Central PA 4th Fest posted on Facebook Wednesday. Tickets can be purchased for $10 each at the lot starting at 5 p.m. Thursday.

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