America250’s civic programming continued throughout the anniversary year, including America’s Field Trip, which sent students to historic sites nationwide, and America Gives, an effort to make July Fourth the largest single day of charitable giving in American history. This holiday weekend alone, America250 is burying the congressionally mandated America’s Time Capsule in Philadelphia, unveiling a monumental National Birthday Cake Tribute at the Library of Congress, staging a benefit concert in Los Angeles featuring Chris Stapleton, The Smashing Pumpkins and Chaka Khan, coordinating eight Times Square ball drops (one for every U.S. time zone) and supporting block parties from Boston to Charleston.
But the biggest visual centerpiece belongs to Trump’s team.
Freedom250’s finale will be what organizers say is the largest fireworks display in American history with 850,000 firework shells.
Pyrotechnico President Rocco Vitale told POLITICO his company began planning in January. The 40-minute show will stretch more than a mile across Washington, launching simultaneously from eight barges on the Potomac River, West Potomac Park and firing sites running the length of the Reflecting Pool.
More than 60 technicians have spent the past week assembling the display, using fireworks sourced from the United States, Italy, Spain and Asia. The soundtrack features patriotic crowd favorites including “Party in the U.S.A.” and “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue.”
“The scale of it was such a huge thing for all of us to really wrap our heads around,” Vitale said. “Once we got our heads around it, we were like, ‘Let’s go do this.’”