Port Royal mayor promises a rescheduled fireworks show after glitch at July 4th event
After a delayed and less-than-crowd-pleasing July 4th fireworks show in Port Royal on Sunday night, Mayor Joe DeVito said the town has plans for a rescheduled event that will likely occur in the fall.
Anticipation was high for dazzling 4th of July fireworks in Beaufort County this weekend since Independence Day events were canceled last year during the COVID-19 pandemic. Shows were scheduled in Port Royal, Hilton Head Island and Savannah.
Port Royal’s fireworks were slated to begin at 8:30 p.m. from a barge in the area off The Sands beach.
That didn’t happen.
Instead, only a fraction of the fireworks were shot off around 10 p.m. after some of the crowd had left. The show lasted less than 5 minutes.
Shortly after the fireworks display, the town posted a message on its Facebook page saying: “Due to technical issues beyond our control, we apologize for the initial delay and issues with tonight’s fireworks.”
On Monday morning, the town followed up with a video of DeVito thanking everyone for attending the event, but also apologizing for the show.
“We know we were all disappointed in what ended up happening,” DeVito said.
He said around 9 p.m., the contractor discovered a technical issue with the wiring on the fireworks that the contractor was “tracking down” and thought they could solve.
After more than half an hour of struggling with the problem, officials realized it likely wasn’t going to be a quick fix.
“Around 9:45 p.m., we made the decision to ask them to see what they could shoot off,” DeVito said. “How much fireworks could we get off tonight?”
Fifteen minutes later, some of the functioning fireworks were released.
“It was not what we all anticipated,” DeVito said. “It was not what we all expected to happen, but it was the best that we could offer in a situation that was out of our control. We apologize to everybody.”
DeVito said the suppliers have agreed to return and re-do the fireworks show on another date.
Although that date hasn’t been decided yet, DeVito said it will likely be in the fall because of the already-busy summer schedule with events like the Beaufort Water Festival coming up.
“We are not giving up in any way on having a fireworks show here at Port Royal,” he said.
The video, which was also sent in the town’s Monday newsletter, had more than 3,100 views, 130 interactions, and almost 50 comments on Facebook as of 1:30 p.m. The video was also shared to the City of Beaufort’s Facebook page.
