LAS VEGAS – Every year, the midnight fireworks show dazzles the hundreds of thousands of revelers ringing in the new year on the Las Vegas Strip.
An 8 News NOW crew took a tour on top of of the Treasure Island Hotel tower for a behind-the-scenes look as pyrotechnicians begin setting up the massive display.
“One tube at a time, I have to put each one in,” said Henry Herman, pyrotechnician as he loads shells for the fireworks display.
In the 30 years Herman has been a pyrotechnician, setting up for a big show has been pretty much the same routine.
“It’s very time consuming, it takes us four to five days to set it up, and for a six-minute show, it’s a lot of work,” Herman said.
Maybe some good news for revelers, this show’s scheduled to last eight minutes and one second.
“It is a big undertaking, massive, it’s the biggest show in the country annually,” said Scott Cooper, Fireworks by Grucci.
The numbers are impressive.
There are 65 people putting in 3,400 man hours to set up 80,000 shells. They’ll all fire off simultaneously from seven locations along the Strip at the stroke of midnight.
“The biggest challenge that we have, of course, is making it more new and exciting than the previous year, so that people keep coming back to Las Vegas,” Cooper said.
It’s all computer-controlled and set to music.
Cooper hopes the boxes of mines, comets and shells large and small will combine to form a dazzling fireworks display that will overwhelm the senses.