West Alton Fireworks City is preparing for this year's Fourth of July rush

WEST ALTON - Fireworks may be illegal in Illinois, but the Fireworks City tent located in nearby West Alton, Missouri, is looking forward to one of its first years in half a decade without Mother Nature working against sales.

This year, there has been no flood or drought affecting people coming to the fireworks tent. Co-owner and tent manager Monica Meyer said the drought was worse than the flooding, adding very few people purchased fireworks that year. This year, however, Mother Nature has been very cooperative with the tent's goals of putting fireworks in the hands of people celebrating the birth of the United States of America.

Another factor in the tent's sales is the day of the week on which the Fourth of July falls. This year, it happens to be on a Tuesday, meaning Meyer and the rest of the tent staff expects quite the rush by this weekend.

"You should get here before the weekend," she said. "It's going to be crazy."

The seasonal tent, which is erected just before Father's Day every year contains an extensive assortment of various styles, colors and sizes of fireworks. Meyer said it has everything from 500 gram reloadables, which cause the massive splashes of colors and thunderous booms in the night sky, to kids' packages.

"Our 500 grams last longer and are more powerful, but we also have smaller 200 grams, which are smaller, but are still pretty good. We have a lot of buy-one-get-one-free selections, which are multi-action and go pretty fast. We also have buy one, get four free, which gives people five for the price of one. Those are popular with kids and teenagers, but are certainly for adults too."

Some new items at the tent include Hot Fireworks Complex's "Premium Pink," which provides several styles of explosions based around the color pink. Meyer said Premium Pink features pink strobes, pink comets and pink bursts.

Another color-themed new addition to the tent's inventory is "Girl or Boy?," which features 12 shots and a surprise ending of either a pink or blue sunburst. Meyer said even the tent staff with all of their pyrotechnic experience cannot tell which color will burst from that particular contraption.

For under $5, customers can try the new "Zombie Prom," which has nine shots. Meyer said she has not attempted the fire Zombie Prom, but added most of the items in the tent's inventory have a scannable code, which directly links of videos of it being fired.

Larger new inventory includes the 19-shot multi-effect "Sky Terror," and the 500 gram "To Glory."

Fireworks City in West Alton has been a family-owned business, which started 53 years ago by the late Harold Thomeczek. It is currently managed by its second generation, including Meyer, Danny Thomeczek, Georgia Thomeczek Adams and MaryAnna Newcomb.

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