All is not lost, San Pedro.
While the town’s decades-old fireworks show at Cabrillo Beach is off this year — with a July 6 drone show scheduled instead — the Port of Los Angeles came through this week with some news that should console the more traditional Fourth of July celebrants.
The port’s annual “Cars and Stripes Forever!” celebration, set for June 28, managed to book its usual fireworks finale after finding a vendor in Pennsylvania.
“We looked high and low for a vendor,” said POLA spokesperson Arley Baker.
The challenges are especially daunting for any fireworks show over water, which have been the focus of lawsuits and drawn the ire of some environmentalists.
Required in-water cleanups and other extra measures have put more pressure, expense — via insurance and financial requirements — on the companies that provide the fireworks extravaganzas.
The port’s usual vendor — Fireworks America, which also did the Cabrillo Beach program for many years — wasn’t able to pull it off this year, leaving Cars and Stripes’s traditional fireworks finale in limbo.
But the port scurried to book another producer who could provide the big fireworks blowout — and succeeded.
The family-owned Zambelli Fireworks — in business for 100 years and located in Warrendale, Pennsylvania — was able to pick up the job, Baker said, in part because Cars and Stripes happens on an off-holiday date.
The challenges, Baker said, aren’t easy, as contractors now have to arrange for additional permits and insurance, as well as meet regulations for shows done over the water.
The Cabrillo Beach drone show planned for July 6, meanwhile, should bring out a big crowd to see something new, Baker said.
“I think it’s going to be a great season,” he said.
Cars and Stripes Forever! is the port’s lead-up to the Fourth of July holiday, held on the Friday night before Independence Day, and featuring classic cars, live bands, and food trucks, all finishing…
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