WOOSTER Sitting on lawn chairs in the soccer fields and swatting at mosquitoes as explosions light up the nighttime sky is a seemingly age-old tradition in the city.
Usually between 3,000 and 5,000 attendees watch fireworks every year here, and this year is projected to be no different, said Gil Ning, the event s annual organizer and president of the Wooster Fireworks Foundation.
Soon after canceling the July 4 fireworks in 2020 due to COVID-19 concerns, Ning promised to bring it in 2021. And he intends to keep that promise.
Just as Ning began planning this year s event, supply chain issues, soaring fireworks prices and a lack of funding threatened to silence the much anticipated colorful explosions.