July 6th 9:15 pm!
Jill Doczi, Fireworks organizer explains:
You can’t just use any barge. It has to be a certain-sized, oceangoing barge with a certain kind of edge around it and certain features. As has been the issue the past few years, there are major, multi-year projects on the HRBT and the CBBT utilizing those types of barges, and the cost to get those to unload all their equipment, suspend their scheduled work and move from their locations for three days would be unthinkable. ADDITIONALLY, this year poses the issue of availability on a huge nationwide anniversary — the 250th.
When there is a shortage of barges, you work with what you have. What we have is a barge being used already on July 4 that we are lucky to share.
Keep in mind, this is only the logistics of the barge. We also need to have an available tug and staff, the city services must be available on a busy holiday. VB fire marshal must be on site the entire time in Chesapeake while the barge and explosives are there, then on site here on our beach while the barge is here. A pyrotechnic crew, each of which has to be highly vetted far ahead of time by multiple security agencies, is dedicated to our show. It IS essentially a giant bomb that floats past vital shipyards, Little Creek Amphib Base and over major tunnel-bridges like HRBT and CBBT, so the people involved can’t just be found on the street to work for a day gig. They must have multiple permits at the federal and state level as well as longshoreman insurance.
The fire marshal’s department is busy July 4, so they’re stretched thin, and we were told it wasn’t an option to get a permit from fire for July 4. We also have to have a plan in place with a city special events person, beach police, traffic control, maritime police and Coast Guard to be on site for our show. They are stretched thin on July 4 as well.
So, the city show will load for days before July 4 and leave Chesapeake that morning. They will shoot at night and head back arriving very early July 5 to Chesapeake. They and the fire marshal get to sleep a bit and start loading our show on July 5. They will leave early afternoon on July 6 to arrive in the bay for our show.
While we were told by fire marshal that July 4 was out of the question, he did say July 2 was a possibility, and we did explore that.
If we wanted to shoot on July 2, the crew would have to be an independent second crew, and our show would absorb the cost of the second crew, their permit fees, their travel, hotel, per diem, lodging, insurance, etc. If you’ve ever worked in maritime, insurance for Jones Act and workers comp per person is crazy. We would also absorb the cost of a separate barge and tug on our own. The cost for the same show, but on July 2, was $21,000 extra. We still very much considered it.
The final hurdle: This is a huge year for July Fourth fireworks (250th), and that added to barge availability issues. We seriously explored July 2, and in the end, a barge couldn’t be secured. There are no extra barges floating around the East Coast. D.C. alone will use eight barges for the federal 250th celebration on the Potomac.
In the end, rather than have nothing on this once-in-a-lifetime milestone celebration, we chose to close out the weekend by celebrating 1776 on 7/6 with a bang!
Why can’t we just have it on the beach and get rid of about half those issues?
- We aren’t allowed to close off a large area of the public beach for the entire holiday weekend to prepare, load and have a show on the sand. Can you imagine how upset people would be if we had to block off our beach across multiple accesses? But that doesn’t matter anyway because of the next answer.
- After the Ocracoke fireworks explosion in July 2009 that killed and injured multiple people, safety rules tightened up everywhere. You can only load shows that are far enough away from people and structures to keep them from harm. So, we can’t trot giant 8-foot-diameter explosives down the beach paths all day with houses 16 feet on either side and people using the already full beach on a holiday. We also couldn’t place explosives with the capability of flying 800 feet sideways within 250 feet (roughly the distance from a house to the high tide line) of houses and people.
- Side note: This is also why it has to load in at an industrial dock in Chesapeake. Imagine the fire power of an entire truck full of hundreds of shells and what that could do to a block of houses on Jefferson or Sandy Bay, or even the boat ramp. It would never be permitted by the fire marshal. Don’t think we didn’t ask though. Immediate answer: “Absolutely not.”
- There are SOME shows that can shoot from land, but, they must have a safety perimeter that meets the requirements. For instance, a 2-inch shell can fly roughly 200 feet in any direction, including sideways. So, if you want to load a show with 2-inch shells or smaller, there have to be no buildings or people within 200 feet of the loading area or the show. That also means the fireworks are lower and harder to see by a wide crowd because they only explode at 200 feet in the air. A 3–inch shell needs 300 feet of load-in and crowd-viewing perimeter, etc. The little ones that look like they’re exploding right above the barge deck are 2-inch shells. Our show uses up to 8-inch shells, so the whole beach gets a good view. The barge is so far out to get the necessary 800 to 1,000 feet of safety perimeter. That’s why Coast Guard and marine police are required to secure that perimeter. If an 8-inch shell got loose and shot sideways, it won’t hit anyone on the beach.
Why is it okay to shoot fireworks at a stadium on land? The stadium viewing area is a few hundred yards. Our viewing area is three miles long. The small fireworks permitted for safety at a stadium or a small venue would look like sparklers to our audience. To meet safety requirements to load a show in and shoot on our beach, we’d be talking about some guys with bottle rockets, which would be a sad, sad show.
Therefore, rather than have nothing, we will celebrate 1776 on 7/6!
We hold a permit for a privately funded, community event. We pay for this event through individual donations, so in consideration of the residential communities along the bay that allow us to put this together each year, we never share or promote it to the larger community.
Here are some questions that are frequently asked about the fireworks. Answers come from our Fireworks Chair, Jill Doczi. Jill has been the organizer of the fireworks since 2011.
Why can’t the fireworks show be on July 3, 4 or 5?
We have been informed by the Fire Marshal that we would not receive a permit for July 3 or 4 due to staffing constraints. A fire marshal must be on site for the duration of loading, set up and the show. To have it on July 5,our show would have to begin loading early on July 4 posing the same city staffing issue.
Why don’t we have people stationed at the beach accesses to collect money from those who attend but don’t live in the neighborhood or from neighbors who forgot but may donate on the spot? We place donation signs at each beach access with a QR code for this purpose. Having people collecting cash would not only be unsafe for the volunteers, would also be impossible to track, and sadly could open us up to theft. We discourage cash donations in general so we can provide accountability.
Why don’t we collect donations from the high rises and Westminster Canterbury? We already do. The organizing communities for the show are Baylake Pines and Ocean Park. We collect from every household in Ocean Park including Pelican Dunes, Chesapeake House, Bay Vista, 3556 on the Bay, Aeries on the Bay, Water Oaks and Three Ships Landing. Additional communities like Chesapeake Beach and Westminster help through donations and we thank them for their support.
Why can’t we collect earlier? Great idea! We can start promoting earlier through all our communication channels. Donations are welcomed at any time through the fireworks page on our website. We don’t distribute envelopes earlier because regardless of when we put them on mailboxes, most donations start coming in June. If we distribute too early, the envelopes get set aside and forgotten or lost.
Could we have a drone show?
I have checked multiple years on this. We would never get a permit because of FAA and proximity to the airport. We wouldn’t get a city permit because it would require taking over and closing the public beach to beachgoers for days during setup and breakdown. The cost is in the six figures on a normal year. There are only X amount of drones to be used at any given time. You can’t just order more cheaply or easily for one day of use. We would need a LOT of drones to be seen from up and down the beach. They work best in smaller viewing situations, like stadiums. The ideal viewing area for a drone show is 500-1,000 feet from the launch site. We have miles of viewing area. Maybe someday all those complications will change? I keep checking. At this point though, drone show is not an option, financially or logistically.
In case of bad weather: If the barge leaves the dock, the fireworks will go off. It is the captain’s call on the barge’s movement. There is the option of waiting a bit or shooting early if there are random storms. If there is something bad enough (wind or rain) that we cancel, then money goes toward next year. Watch the OPCL.org website for updates!! In the past It was too long a process to secure all the needed permission and permits from police, rescue and fire depts to be able to have a rain date.
DISCLAIMER: All donations are accepted under the consideration of current federal, state and local permitting and vendor safety precautions. If there are any unforeseen changes in guidelines, conditions, mandates or rules, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Virginia Beach Department of Public Health/Virginia Department of Health, or any cancellations from licensing organizations or event vendors that would require us to postpone this event, it will be rescheduled when appropriate and previous donations will be applied to the rescheduled event. There should be NO expectation of refunds.
Fireworks tradition!
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Our shows are spectacular!
A Little History about our Ocean Park Fireworks
In the past, Shore Drive residents paid for and shot off individual fireworks along the beaches on the Fourth of July. It was huge fun. While spectacular to watch, it was also unregulated and unsafe.
In 2009 the Virginia Beach Fire Marshal launched an effort to stop amateur fireworks on the Fourth of July. It succeeded with heavy patrolling, enforcement and penalties—ending personal fireworks on our beaches that year.
The following year in 2010, our former civic league president Rick Mercadante organized the first legal, professional show using a pyrotechnic company and the fireworks were set off from the beach. The City, satisfied, ended heavy patrolling on the holiday.
After a few years, changes in permit and safety requirements, plus the loss of beach, required that the show become a barge show in 2012. To offset the cost of fuel and barge rental, some Bayfront civic leagues joined forces rather than see fireworks on the Fourth end. A more central location was chosen with Coast Guard approval. The current show is constantly fine-tuned to accommodate the wishes of all neighborhoods. Please know that you support fireworks through donations to the show. Also know that if you don’t let your civic league know you want a fireworks show, it can be voted out each year. Active participation in your community provides events like these for you, your family and friends to enjoy.
Participating communities:
Baylake Pines and Ocean Park including Pelican Dunes, Chesapeake House, Bay Vista, 3356 on the Bay, Aeries on the Bay, Water Oaks, Three Ships Landing. Westminster Canterbury also makes a generous donation.
2010 July 4. Show fired from the beach
2011 July 4 Show fired from the beach
2012 July 4 first show shot from the a barge (2009 was the explosion on Ocracoke that caused a bunch of new laws regarding the loading of fireworks of a certain quantity and size. Then 9/11 sealed the deal on background checks, training, security and advanced safety precautions. )
2013 July 4 the barge mishap that caused a 20-minute intermission before resuming the show
2014 July 4 rescheduled moved to July 12 Tropical Storm Arthur
2015 July 4 rescheduled moved to July 5 due to thunderstorms
2016 July 3
2017 July 3
2018 July 3
2019 July 3
2020 (Covid) we were denied the permit from the Coast Guard, as was the city, because they are a federal agency and had to follow federal distancing guidelines.
2021 July 3
2022 July 2 ( beach replenishment)
2023 July 1
2024 July 6
2025 July 6
If you love the fireworks and are grateful to have such a beautiful show right in our neighborhood, we need all donations, however small!! All monies collected go only toward fireworks!
- If we don’t raise the money, we don’t have a show.
- No money comes from general civic league funds- our budget is too limited. And this event is for the enjoyment of all not just civic league members! HUGE amount of resources from the civic leagues goes into organizing!!
- No money comes from City of Virginia Beach.
- Average amount: $30-$100 per household.
- No amount too small!
- You can make a donation with a credit card at Cheddar Up: Donate to OPCL Fireworks on Cheddarup.com
- You can donate using PayPal: Donate to OPCL Fireworks on PayPal
- If you prefer to mail a check, make it out to “OPCL FIREWORKS”
- OPCL, Fireworks
- PO Box 55385
- Virginia Beach, VA 23471
Please consider joining the Ocean Park Civic League! Annual membership is $25 per household. We depend on your support! Go to: opcl.org/aboutopcl/joinopcl/
Ocean Park Civic League 