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Updating Breaking News: Mayor Nelson releases statement on fireworks cancellation

Posted

Updating Breaking News:

Fireworks show canceled by pyrotechnics vendor

Apopka Mayor Bryan Nelson has released a statement on the City's Facebook Page about last night's cancellation of the fireworks display at the 4th of July celebration:

"First, I would like to thank the thousands who came out to the Fourth of July Celebration last night. Our staff did an outstanding job putting together a family-friendly event from the music by The Legendary JCs and Tommy Z to the bounce houses, face painting, and balloon artists. We appreciate the Boy Scouts who helped with the parking and the many others who helped in planning the event.

As your Mayor, I need to apologize to everyone who came out to watch an amazing fireworks display only to be disappointed that Creative Pyrotechnics did not perform. Creative Pyrotechnics had produced our 4th of July Fireworks in 2016 and 2017 as well as the Old Florida Outdoor Festival in 2017. The fireworks purchase order was signed one day prior to my swearing in and the Council had no reason to doubt the company since they had successfully produced three events for us in the past. Unfortunately, the pyrotechnic technician sent to handle our event was inexperienced and didn’t have adequate help. At 5:00 p.m. he realized that he was missing some hardware and had to go back to the office in Deland to pick up additional supplies, which put him 90 minutes behind schedule. The vendor did not inform our staff that there was a problem until 8:30 p.m. Creative Pyrotechnics even asked our city employees to help load the firework tubes but by 9:00 p.m. less than half had been loaded. We requested that even half the display of fireworks should be released but were told no. After an additional delay, Creative Pyrotechnics finally called the show off and within 10 minutes our staff went on stage and informed the public that the show had been cancelled.

I apologize for the inconvenience and understand your frustration but please understand that the City was at the mercy of Creative Pyrotechnics to perform their duties and they didn’t. We are looking at all legal remedies. We as a city apologize for not keeping the public better informed at the event and on social media but, unfortunately, we were not aware of all of the issues behind the scenes until too late.

The employees at the City and I are committed to making this right. We are working on a FREE Labor Day celebration event complete with fireworks to make up for the disappointing finish to our 4th of July event and hope to see you all there."

Bryan Nelson

Mayor

 

4th of July, City of Apopka, Fireworks

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