(Editor’s note: This story featuring a video of the 2015 fireworks was originally published in July 2016 and is republished here for your Independence Day enjoyment.)
What’s it like to watch Juneau’s Independence Day fireworks from the barge? It’s loud and smelly — and it’s a blast!
Watch Juneau’s 2015 fireworks show from a dangerously close vantage.
A Unique Perspective from KTOO on Vimeo.
How the video was made
Members of the Juneau Festival Association gave KTOO permission last year to observe and photograph the process setting up the annual fireworks display. For a couple days leading up to the shoot, volunteers sorted the shells into different types, sizes and colors. After the shells were connected to firing squibs and placed into launch tubes, they were connected to hundreds of feet of wiring linking them to a firing panel at the rear of the barge.
I set up three GoPro cameras to capture the fireworks display as it happened. One camera was trained on the firing table, another was aimed straight up and the third at the front of the barge showed most of the launch tubes and pyrotechnics on the barge. The camera looking up was attached to a giant sandbox that enveloped the launch tubes for the 10-inch shells, the largest fireworks used in the display.
Volunteers worked on the barge while it was anchored in Gastineau Channel across from downtown Juneau’s small boat harbors. Hours before the display, a tugboat moved the barge to a location in front of Marine Park and the cruise ship docks.
