ATTENTION REDHAWKS, BRICKTOWN ASSOCIATION
DON’T FORGET WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED IN YEARS PAST….
Fireworks displays fizzle, spectators say
By Jean Plumberg
Staff Writer
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Saturday, July 6, 2002
Edition: CITY, Section: TODAY I, Page 01
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Linked Objects: (Click image for details)
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Hopes for great booms went bust for some Oklahomans this Fourth of July.
Visitors to Oklahoma City’s downtown fireworks shows complained about the size, location and tardiness of the displays.
“We waited over an hour,” said one disgruntled great-grandmother. “I was disappointed in the city for putting them where no one could see them.”
But Oklahoma City didn’t put on the shows shot off from the Cox Convention Center roof and from near NE 2 and Oklahoma Avenue, just north of Bricktown.
Downtown OKC Inc. was in charge of those displays and used money from private companies to fund it, said Karen Ocker, director or marketing and design for the company.
She blamed the time misunderstanding on those who helped get word out about the shows.
“It’s too bad the media reported it incorrectly,” Ocker said. “The plan was always to shoot them off between 10 and 10:30.”
But there’s some dispute about the time the two shows started. If possible, they were to be coordinated with the fireworks display at the SBC Bricktown Ballpark, which was to begin after the game’s conclusion.
The RedHawks took the Tacoma Rainiers into 12 innings before losing their sixth straight Fourth of July game.
Fireworks began booming from the other two locations before the game ended about 10:50 p.m.
Ocker was sure her 17-minute shows ended before 10:40 p.m.
Many watchers expected the shows to begin at 10 p.m. Children became sleepy and parents became weary waiting for the downtown and Bricktown fireworks.
The displays were to be coordinated with music simulcast on two radio stations, but Ocker said, “People weren’t listening to updates on KTOK and KJ-103.”
One of the problems was a change in location of the downtown show. The site previously used for launching fireworks is where the new downtown library is under construction. Organizers were forced to change the location.
“People traditionally don’t do rooftop fireworks in Oklahoma City, so it was a test,” Ocker said. “It was in-your-face, high-intensity color and low-distance rising.”
Not everyone agreed.
The 66-year-old great-grandmother traveled with four-generations of her family to see the shows.
“I think it was very mean of them not to make it a large notification in the newspaper that it was going to be changed and we needed to find alternate places to view it,” she said.
“The Roman candles they shot off… that’s all we could see,” she said. “All they (the children) saw was maybe two or three little sparklers.”
If nothing else, organizers plan to learn from this year’s experience.
“Are we going to tweak it next year? Yes, absolutely,” Ocker said.
The simulcast will be back in some form next year, and more rooftops may be added to the downtown show. But for Chrysanthemum fireworks, viewers may have to look elsewhere.
“This was not taxpayer money,” Ocker said. “And it’s frustrating to hear anyone complain when a lot of the activities were free.”
But money isn’t always the most important thing. As the Oklahoma City great-grandmother put it, “A hundred years from now it won’t matter, but it sure was disappointing for the children.”
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Comments
Larry, you missed one line from the reprint:
Saturday, July 6, 2002
(Captcha this time around: albania Walker. This would be, what, about 8th or 9th?)
The good news is the RedHawks did learn from the past: they very generously proceeded with the fireworks show at 9:30 p.m. even though the game was cancelled. What could have been a pr disaster for Bricktown and the team was smartly adverted.
“The site previously used for launching fireworks is where the new downtown library is under construction.” Am confused here, new downtown library? Don’t we have a new downtown library built with MAPS (Ron J. Norick Library)?