4th of July event is a BLAST (Posted 7/6/2010 12:40 pm)
By Christopher Amos

Another Alvarado Star exclusive

Organizers of the annual Alvarado Forth of July extravaganza were cautiously optimistic about the turn-out for Sunday’s event at Diamond W event center. The crowd, it seemed, was coming in later in spite of mild weather.

The event, sponsored by the city of Alvarado and the Alvarado Chamber of Commerce, has grown larger each year.

Alvarado High School Army Junior ROTC cadets manned the front gate and provided parking assistance as the parking lot slowly began to fill.

Chamber member Jerry Pritchard looked across the growing crowd and at his watch.

“I think we have a lot bigger crowd this year,” he said. “The parking lot is getting full and we still have a couple of hours to go.”

What the late-comers missed was craft and vendor booths, food, snow cones and adult beverages inside the spacious Diamond W complex. Bounce houses and splash slides were outside.

“We are getting a real good reputation within the county as having an extraordinary event,” Pritchard added.

It was still sunlight when the main attraction arrived ­­— Alvarado native Michael Percifield entered a remote gate pulling a 20-foot trailer of fireworks followed by a caravan of Atlas Enterprise fireworks specialists.

Percifield said he has been a professional pyrotechnician for 17 years.

Men and women piled out of pickups and began unloading racks of fireworks tubes, electronic triggers and clusters of wired mortars. Percifield began assembling the show-starter – a 16 foot American flag made of red, white and blue flammable tubing.

He does this a lot around the country. Percifield left Louisiana at 6 a.m. after a show the day before to make it to the Alvarado show.

“One I really like, called ‘Salute,’ is what we will do at ‘bombs bursting in air’ during the National Anthem,” Percifield said as he spread his arms to emphasize the magnitude of the burst. “Another of my favorites is a 6-inch shell that bursts red and then it turns white and blue.”

Families brought blankets and chairs or sat on tailgates and hoods as the time for the show drew nearer. Michael Rayburn, emcee of Texas Tunes, provided the music for the occasion. He was notified that it was time for the show, and  the tune “Alvarado” by Alvarado Road Show could be heard across the grounds.

Then the “Star-Spangled Banner” began.

Spectators across the grounds stood as the giant American flag blazed in the darkness. Persifield readied a trigger, and as the music played “and the rockets red glare,” a giant shell rocketed into the sky and startled the crowd with a rumbling charge. Then, the night sky lit up in fiery color.

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Michael Percifield wires a giant, blazing American flag for the beginning of the fireworks show.