Will Coss, executive producer for the Macy's 4th of July Firework show, joined with the AccuWeather Network to break down preparations for the upcoming holiday festivities in New York City.

New York

The Macy's 4th of July Fireworks show is set to celebrate its 49th annual display over New York City. Executive producer Will Coss shared that preparations have been ongoing for the past year, with the event featuring 80,000 shells and effects over a 25-minute show. This year's display will include four barges and pyrotechnics from the Brooklyn Bridge, along with the introduction of projection mapping on the bridge's towers.

Coss noted that weather conditions such as rain and wind are closely monitored in the lead-up to the event. The show is designed around a musical score produced in collaboration with Questlove, with pyrotechnic effects tailored to match the emotional cadence of the music. Highlights include fireworks reaching up to 1,000 feet and a 1,600-foot waterfall effect from the Brooklyn Bridge.

Preparing for the iconic Macy's 4th of July Fireworks show

a holiday filled with traditions. One of the biggest is the Macy's 4th of July fireworks. This year marks the 49th annual display, lighting up the sky over New York City. Will cost is the executive producer and he joins us now. Thank you so much for being with us this morning. Thanks for having me. Good morning. Good morning. Well, how are preparations going? Can you describe the planning behind this major fireworks display in New York City? Reparations are going well. We're just a couple of days away from the 49th annual Macy's 4th of July fireworks here in New York City. Tons of work has happened over the last year to get ourselves prepped, but we're almost there. 80,000 shells and effects over 25 consecutive minutes. We have four barges. We have the Brooklyn Bridge this year will be firing a variety of pyrotechnic displays off of throughout the 25 minutes of fireworks. We also have some projection mapping for the first time this year, so it's gonna be a big show, one of the biggest we've ever done and excited to bring it to New York City in America. Well, you mentioned, I think one new thing. The projection mapping is what you called it. What else is new or different in this year's show? Or can you explain even in what that was exactly? Yes. So we have a great opportunity to fire off the Brooklyn Bridge this year and to enhance the overall theatrical production and the storytelling within that 25 minutes of pyrotechnics will be projecting a variety of artful images on the east and west tower of the Brooklyn Bridge. So it's an iconic location. We're able to enhance it and create some additional beauty that will complement the fireworks above and beyond our 80,000 shells and effects that will be firing off amazing line. I can tell how much planning goes into it. I love the storyline behind it as well. All right, well, we hear it. Accurate. Of course, we always want to know what weather conditions do you guys worry most about when it comes to the firework shows? Thankfully, our team is is well prepared and well prepped for a variety of weather, climates and environments. This year, it's looking like we're gonna have some good weather, fingers crossed. But we're looking out for intense rains, winds. We take all that into consideration in our preparations and have a watchful eye out over the next 48 hours as we lead into the holiday. Absolutely. So far in our good category, we have three categories for the fireworks viewing and so far looking good. All right, how do you design a show like this from the colors, shapes and sounds and, you know, keeping it maybe different every year? Yeah, this year we had an opportunity to work with the legendary Questlove on our musical score. He and the team helped produce a fantastic score. So we start with our musical foundation. That's the baseline of of the entire event. So that will help to kind of tell the story of the emotional cadence of the fireworks event. Once we have the peaks, the valleys, the patriotic moments, the introspective moments, we'll work with our pyrotechnics team to assign and design very specific effects across that 25 minutes. So some will be really larger than life moments that are going to pyrotechnics that will be upwards of 1000 feet in the air, cascading down, changing colors up to eight different times. Other moments will be a little bit more majestic. We have this 1600 foot waterfall that will be coming off of the Brooklyn Bridge at a really beautiful point in the show. So again, we start with our music and then we work with our teams across the pyrotechnics to build each specific moment that takes us, you know, takes the audience on a journey throughout those 25 minutes. Amazing. We are looking forward to it already. It's so fun to see the video will cost executive producer of the Macy's 4th of July fireworks show. Thanks again for joining us and just sharing your passion. It certainly came out and we look forward to the show. Thank you so much. Happy fourth.

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