>Kevin, you're a man after my own heart. I've always said I'd drag my broken suppurating gangrenous stump of a leg miles to see a good show. Our 4th July, of course, is bonfire night, 5th Nov. A very ancient town 9 miles from here has several fireworks societies who work all year for this night. there are about 6 different F-off displays and from high ground you can see them all. Only problem is which to join. I go every year. A lot of the craic is the parades and bands in the streets before the shows. Take a look at some of these:
>
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBcv3AIqFfE&feature=related
>
>3-4 min long firecrackers go off in the street and the whole night is a complete magical blast. You'd love it to death. Each soc has a set of "cardinals" who stand on rostrums and have fireworks fired at them as they "preach" the Catholic litany, mostly vs Guy Fawkes. Some of the vids feature examples of this.
>
>Oh, and belated b'day wishes USA.

My fondest memories of fireworks and the 4th of July are when I was around 9-11 years old in a small town in Wisconsin (unincorporated town of Dalton) which threw a great celebration every year until they could no longer afford it. That time period and also when my daughter was around 10 and could really enjoy them were the best (military bases throw the best fireworks displays and we lived less than 10 miles from a large military base). I usually don't bother with the crowds for firework displays anymore. After all those years of fighting traffic both directions (you have to when you have kids), I elect to opt out usually now. However, I would make an exception to watch the cardinals have fireworks thrown at them!... :o)

DBcv3AIqFfE