Fireworks will light up Alamitos Bay Sept. 1, but it may be the last Big Bang of its kind

It’s official. The annual Big Bang on the Bay fireworks show will happen on Labor Day weekend after being canceled over the Independence Day holiday.

The annual celebration — typically attended by thousands — cleared its final hurdle Friday when the California Coastal Commission approved a permit to light off the pyrotechnics. But before commissioners voted to let the show go on, most of them spoke strongly about the need to find a non-explosive alternative for next year’s July 3 event to limit effects on birds, air quality and water quality.

“I think it’s pretty clear this will be the last year that the commission will support the fireworks,” said Commission Vice Chair Caryl Hart.

The show was canceled earlier this year after the Boys & Girls Clubs, which had just taken over as the lead organizer, did not apply for a required Coastal Development Permit in time.

City officials, including the mayor and city manager, scrambled behind the scenes to try to get the event approved, but it was to no avail, and organizers opted to push it to Sept. 1.

At Friday’s meeting, Coastal Commissioner Roberto Uranga, also a Long Beach City Council member representing District 7, strongly urged the commission to support this year’s rescheduled event because of its importance as a charity fundraiser.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Long Beach CEO Don Rodriguez said that did not go unnoticed.

“Without him being as vocal as he was for the city of Long Beach and its charities, I don’t think we would have been able to get this through,” Rodriguez said.

Before passing it to the Boys & Girls Clubs this year, restaurant owner  John Morris organized Big Bang on the Bay for more than a decade as a major fundraiser for local charities.

He contends most people support the Big Bang even as complaints about environmental harm have grown and regulators have put in stricter rules about monitoring and mitigating the damage.

“The community is supporting it 99.9%,” Morris said. “If I thought for one second the community wouldn’t want this, that I would be pissing them off, I wouldn’t do it.”

This year’s event will serve as the primary fundraiser for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Long Beach along with seven other charities including Action Sports Kids Foundation , Children Today , Los Altos YMCA , and the Autism Partnership Foundation .

Over the past decade, Big Bang has raised $1.7 million for local nonprofits, according to Morris.

This year’s Coastal Development Permit approval came with the stipulation that any application for a permit for a similar fireworks show in 2025 or beyond will have to be submitted by no later than Jan. 15 of the year in which the event will occur.

In recent years, the Coastal Commission received complaints that the fireworks show was affecting water quality and harming migratory birds, leading to a more rigorous permitting process.

After winning a court battle over those pollution concerns in 2023 , Morris handed over organizing duties this year to The Boys & Girls Clubs of Long Beach.

Big Bang on the Bay Schedule

Starting around 9 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 1, the Boys & Girls Clubs will host a 20-minute round of pyrotechnics shot from a barge in Alamitos Bay.

Prior to the fireworks, Boathouse on the Bay restaurant will host a block party beginning at 4:30 p.m. at 190 North Marina Drive.

General admission tickets are $75, while tickets for kids under 10 are $35. All proceeds from the event will go to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Long Beach.

The festivities will include a DJ, aircraft flyovers and a show featuring paragliders over Alamitos Bay, Morris said.

On Aug. 31, Jakob’s Castle — a band headed by Jakob Nowell, son of former Sublime lead singer Bradley Nowell — will perform a benefit concert at Boathouse on the Bay in honor of International Overdose Awareness Day.

Concert tickets start at $30, with all the proceeds going to the Nowell Family Foundation supporting addiction recovery services.

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