In 2010, KaBoom became three-day event, increasings costs that were not matched by donations from viewers and sponsors. But it sure was fun. Here’s a replay of that year’s spectacle.
It’s kind of a red-meat question, one that seems to come up at every backyard barbecue on the Greater Green this time of year: Is Red Bank better off without its longtime fireworks show?
By tradition, the borough’s Independence Day fireworks were held on July 3. The show, branded KaBoom in its last years, was billed as the fourth-largest Independence Day fireworks celebration in America in terms of the number and size of shells lofted into the sky above the Navesink River.
But the spectacle was cancelled in 2012 after a 53-year run, when its budget ran to $250,000 and the nonprofit organization that put on the show couldn’t cover the cost through fundraising.
What have we missed, if anything? Was the tradeoff – a quiet night in place of an event that in its later years drew more than 100,000 spectators, some of them drunk and rowdy – a plus for the town? Might they be revived, profitably, on a smaller scale?
We’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this, including local officials and those who were involved in the KaBoom effort.
