Hoping for oohhhs and ahhhs aplenty, the Richmond Region 2007 brain trust envisioned as many as 10 massive fireworks displays lighting up nights across the city throughout the year.
Those plans have gone from pop to fizzle. The yearlong pyrotechnic extravaganza, part of the state’s broader Jamestown 2007 celebrations, has been whittled back to one date: Saturday, May 26.
“The original plan we talked about maybe doing five to ten international-[themed] fireworks displays,” says Wilson H. Flohr, president and chief executive of Richmond Region 2007. But “the interest from the corporate community just wasn’t there,” he says.
Flohr, who says he’s a “former carnival guy” who headed Paramount’s Kings Dominion in Hanover County for 15 years, admits some disappointment that a financial flameout truncated the planned TNT tributes.
But he promises that the single display will make up with quality what is lacking in quantity. “We call it our 400-candle blowout,” Flohr says. The night’s fireworks display will be prefaced by a Richmond Symphony performance. S
