Rhythm
The fireworks are launched in choreographed fashion to music broadcast over the radio. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own radios to listen. During the day of the fireworks show, the park is host to musical stages featuring a variety of musical styles from oldies to marching bands. A carnival is also set up in the park, and a Madison Mallards baseball game is played in the afternoon. The show is preceded by a Wisconsin Army National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter landing, and a Wisconsin Air National Guard F-16 jet fighter fly-over. Music from a variety of genres accompanies the fireworks when they begin at around 9:30PM.
Radios are required mostly because it is easier to synchronize the musical rhythm with the booms going on in the sky, since radio waves travel at the speed of light. There is also the practical consideration of getting enough speakers, amplifiers and wires for a traditional sound system for 300,000 people. In the actual shows, speakers are not used at all.
Read more about this topic: Rhythm And Booms
Famous quotes containing the word rhythm:
“The rhythm of the weekend, with its birth, its planned gaieties, and its announced end, followed the rhythm of life and was a substitute for it.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“There are those who dance to the rhythm that is played to them, those who only dance to their own rhythm, and those who don’t dance at all.”
—José Bergamín (1895–1983)
“In our rhythm of earthly life we tire of light. We are glad when the day ends, when the play ends; and ecstasy is too much pain.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)