Boomtown celebrates America with thrills

WAMEGO — The City of Wamego becomes Boomtown every July 4, transforming from an idyllic prairie town into a sensory celebration of America. The activities in town include a carnival, parade, car and tractor show, but the featured event is the fireworks show.

Wamego tourism and event manager, and member of the pyro crew, Corey Reeves spoke about Boomtown just hours before the show was set to begin.

“It doesn’t get better than this,” he said. “We’ve got the Fort Riley band and the vibe in Wamego has just been spectacular all day long.”

That vibe was a real, palpable feeling throughout the community. A carnival drew in several guests looking to get their fill of food and thrills. A crowd gathered for the annual parade, but paled in comparison to the gathering that took in the night’s fireworks display.

Reeves said the show is a very technical presentation.

“We have over 100 unique shooting positions within the show, which is more than we’ve ever had,” he said. “We were adding a new kind of effect to the show that we’ve never done before.”

Reeves said the Wamego show is special.

“We are one of two sites in the entire country running a software package that allows us to layer fireworks to music with fire effects as well as lighting effects,” he said.

The show featured high altitude aerials, ground level fountains, and synchronized flamethrowers.

Chris Hupe, Pyrocrew and Fireworks Director, gave a post-mortem recap of the night on early Saturday morning during clean-up.

“I think we had a spectacular show,” he said. “We were very pleased with the choreography. The team did an incredible job with the setup. It was an incredibly technical setup, and they just did fabulous the weather cooperated with us and made for an incredible night.”

Food was supplied by local food trucks while attendees danced and sang along with the First Infantry Division Rock Band, who played before and after the pyrotechnic display.

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