Friday, April 17, 2009

Thunder Over Louisville


Tomorrow is "Thunder Over Louisville" in my city of Louisville, KY. 

Thunder as the natives call it, is the first official event in the kickoff of the Kentucky Derby Festival.  It's a day full of fun, food and laughter, as potentially more than 800,000 people head down to the waterfront to watch the air show and each other. When night approaches everyone eagerly awaits  the fireworks to begin.

According to the official Thunder website:

"The day-long event kicks off the two exciting weeks of events that are part of the annual Kentucky Derby Festival. The Thunder airshow dazzles the crowd with more than 100 planes, aerobatics teams, daring sky diving teams and breathtaking stunts."

"When it gets dark the Thunder rolls. The fireworks will feature the latest pyrotechnics power from Zambelli Internationale, America's "first family of fireworks". Eight 400-foot barges assemble on both sides of the 2nd Street bridge to form the stage from which the fireworks spectacular ignites".


As a resident, I can certainly attest to the sounds of "Thunder". I live quite a few miles away from the fireworks location yet every year I know when it's the finale because I hear it.

After more than a decade , the show remains the largest annual pyrotechnic display in North America. Seen by approximately 1-million U.S. Armed Forces, Department of Defense civilian employees and their families stationed in over 176 countries and aboard 140 U.S. Navy Ships at sea via a July 4th rebroadcast on the American Forces Network, it is the state's pride.  A Discovery Channel documentary on fireworks shows says it best, "Thunder is the Grand-daddy of them all!"

Although this video is not as good as being there in person, it should give everyone an idea about the fireworks. Keep in mind the fireworks actually go on for about 30 minutes and this video is only about 9 minutes. Enjoy! And please do visit the official Thunder website for much more information.


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