While the crowd oohs and aahs tonight at ruby red dazzlers and sparkling silver lights, a crew of pyrotechnicians will be conducting the Fair Park Fourth fireworks show from a parking lot a few hundred feet away.
Craig Holcomb, president of event sponsor Friends of Fair Park, marveled at what goes into creating the show, which is expected to draw 60,000 to 100,000 spectators to the Cotton Bowl.
"It's a long way from lighting firecrackers in the backyard," he said.
The $40,000 show involves a sophisticated computer-generated script, choreographed to music, plus hard labor attaching wires in the hot sun. The payoff comes Saturday night, said Jeff Engel, chief pyrotechnician for the show, as he sweated in near 100-degree heat.
"We like it at the end, when we hear the roar of the audience," he said. "It makes it all worthwhile."
Seven pyrotechnicians from New York-based Fireworks by Grucci and four other workers have spent the past three days setting up the elaborate display. The team hauled 2,000 pounds of fireworks across the country in a tractor-trailer.
On Friday, the crew arranged 26 large steel grids, each with 25 slots for shells containing individual fireworks.
Each firework is encased in a shell that looks like an oversized light bulb wrapped in brown paper. Inside, one fuse launches the firework like a rocket, while another has a time delay that makes it burst in the air.
The fireworks are made of gunpowder and beads that form various shapes and colors depending on the chemical pigments and how they are arranged inside. They come from all over the world, though most are from China.
The shells are attached to small yellow wires called electric matches and placed in long black, upright fiberglass tubes. The wires lead to a main control panel, with numbered buttons that correspond to each shell.
"A guy with a headset will listen for cues and press the button," Engel said. Each button sets off an electric match, which lights the fuse that shoots the firework as high as 800 feet.
The funds for the display were raised privately through sponsorships instead of taxpayer dollars. Public funds have been in such short supply that some cities across the country have been forced to cancel their July Fourth displays.
Engel, who works for a school district full time, comes with 20 years of on-the-job experience. He was trained by Grucci, which has put on fireworks shows for presidential inaugurations, Olympic ceremonies and New Year's Eve celebrations in New York City.
"We have morticians, housewives, teachers and doctors," said Engel, whose wife, fellow pyrotechnician Jane Engel, also traveled to Dallas. One of the job requirements is to be available on July Fourth.
All their work will culminate Saturday in a finale choreographed to the song "Stars and Stripes Forever" by John Philip Sousa.
"It's going to be a lot of salutes, big shells, a lot of booms and a lot of colors," Jeff Engel said. "We're going to give you a good show."
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