Revel is turning Labor Day into a three-day fireworks event.
About a dozen workers from New York will set up thousands of fireworks this week along the beach and on different parts of the roof at the resort. Brookhaven, N.Y.-based fireworks company Grucci plans to angle the fireworks and create a “lattice” design of crisscrossing colors, Cooper said.
“The idea is to focus around Revel,” said Scott Cooper, project coordinator for the company. “We want to light up the whole building.”
Greater Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce director of events, Elisa Monroe, who has worked at the chamber for 15 years, said she couldn’t remember there ever being fireworks on Labor Day weekend in Atlantic City.
Maybe if the Surf played a baseball game that day, she said.
Local historian, Allen “Boo” Pergament, has lived on Absecon Island his entire life but couldn’t think of another time fireworks lit Atlantic City over the holiday weekend.
“It wouldn’t be something I would forget easily,” he said.
At Revel, crews will spend all week arranging racks of fireworks along the top of the building’s 58th story, Cooper said. Fireworks will shoot between 150 feet and 200 feet high, which means they will project about 1,000 feet in the air when shot off Revel’s roof, he said.
Ten-minute displays will begin at 9:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Cooper said. A show will be held Monday night if any of the scheduled shows are canceled due to weather.
So far, it looks like it will be warm and sunny for most of this weekend, with rain maybe coming on Sunday night, according to the National Weather Service.
There is a chance that a cold front could sweep in late Sunday and interact with remnants of Hurricane Isaac, although much of that is too early to predict accurately, said National Weather Service meteorologist Kristin Kline.
“The majority of the weekend should be dry,” she said.
That’s good news for visitors who see Labor Day as the last big holiday weekend to spend along the coast.
“Labor Day is all about enjoying summer, dining out and getting some beach time in,” said Lori Pepenella, spokeswoman for the Southern Ocean County Chamber of Commerce.
The Wildwood’s Annual Block Party, the Tomato Festival in West Cape May, the Viking Village Craft Show in Barnegat Light and races in Atlantic City, Avalon and Ocean City, and a community barbecue in Stafford Township to benefit seven local food pantries are all planned.
Shore promoters view Labor Day Weekend as a send-off to tourists, thanking them for visiting and leaving them with good memories so they’re excited to come back next year.
“It’s a celebration of the end of the summer, and a way of saying thanks for spending the summer with us,” Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr.
Wildwood has held its block party for several years now, but this weekend it will hold a special significance because the city is celebrating its centennial this year. Live performances by Chubby Checker, The Trammps, Charlie Grace, Beatlemania and more are scheduled.
Staff Writer David Simpson contributed to this report.
Contact Lee Procida:
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Contact Joel Landau:
609-272-7215
Follow Joel Landau on Twitter @landaupressofac
