In most cities, going to the fireworks is a bit of a pain in the ass. From fighting traffic to finding a place to sit, it’s quite an ordeal for somewhere between fifteen minutes and a half hour of entertainment. Luckily, the shows are almost always halfway decent, and since they happen on the Fourth of July, there’s typically a lot of happiness and goodwill running through the crowd, at least if the festivities last more than ten seconds.
Unfortunately for the citizens of San Diego, this year’s fireworks display was more of a chaotic clusterfuck than an organized show. Thanks to a computer glitch, every one of the hundreds of fireworks officials purchased for the annual Big Bay Boom in Glorietta Bay went off at the same time. Even worse, it all happened about five minutes prior to the show’s start time; so, the majority of spectators weren’t even looking at the sky.
According to MSNBC, there was confusion and debates among the attendees after the initial explosion happened. Some immediately realized all of the fireworks had just been mistakenly shot off, while others maintained hope the explosion was just a preamble to the larger show. After about twenty minutes, city officials finally manned up and told the crowd to go home.
I’ve always been one of those guys who prefers a shorter, busier show to a longer, more artsy fireworks display, but this was clearly too much...
