Fireworks light up the Alabama River on Labor Day

Published 10:05 pm Monday, September 1, 2014

Fireworks light up the Labor Day night sky Monday over Selma. This marked the second year for the city of Selma's Labor Day Celebration. -- Tim Reeves

Fireworks light up the Labor Day night sky Monday over Selma. This marked the second year for the city of Selma’s Labor Day Celebration. — Tim Reeves

The fireworks that lit up the Selma sky Monday night faded from view with a bang, leaving the sky dark and those watching in awe.

Then, a few seconds later, the sky lit up again as the real grand finale got underway, leaving the sky full of color and illuminating the silhouette of the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

The second annual Labor Day Celebration, sponsored by the city of Selma, the Dallas County Commission and the Selma-Dallas County Chamber of Commerce, not only featured a huge fireworks show in the evening, but included vendors, music and plenty of fun.

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Children in attendance were entertained by inflatables and train rides before being wowed by the fireworks show created by Pyro Productions, a company from Adamsville.

“The show size is as big as it is for the Fourth, maybe even a little bit bigger,” said Jeff Neu, vice-president of Pyro Productions. “If we aren’t doing it on the Fourth, we have more resources and more manpower on Labor Day opposed to the Fourth of July.”

Because there aren’t many firework shows on Labor Day — Pyro Productions only had three Monday — Neu said more resources could go into the performance in Selma.

Neu said about 48-64 hours of manpower went into getting Monday’s fireworks show prepared, with the most time consuming part getting the music choreographed correctly.

Those waiting for the fireworks show were entertained with vendors, who were selling food and an assortment of several other items.

Mary Martin, from Marion, was selling inflatable toys from her business — called Mary’s Earrings and Things. Among the things for sale were a Spiderman inflatable, along with other popular cartoon characters.

“We usually do our business at fireworks shows and things like that,” Martin said. “We went to Demopolis Christmas on the river because there are lots of kids [out here] and they love inflatable toys.”