A Year of Planning, Design Precedes Orcas Fireworks Displays

— by Lin McNulty, Managing Editor —

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Heather Gobet is the fourth-generation owner of Western Display Fireworks, Ltd. based in Canby, Oregon. The company was founded by Mickey and Dorothy Weygandt in 1948 and has been passed down through the women of the family ever since. Gobet delights in explaining she grew up with fireworks.

Heather Gobet, fireworks designer.

Western Display does not manufacture the pyrotechnics; they order fireworks in pre-filled containers or shells from many different regions of the world, mainly China. Gobet points out that her year is filled with researching and learning about new technology, attending and competing in fireworks competitions, and ordering product before readying an actual design for a show. This is where Gobet, the main designer, sparkles.

One of my first questions to Gobet was to be “What do you do the rest of the year?” Planning, designing, building, and coordinating over 350 fireworks displays, including the top three shows in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, begins a year before the actual events. And 200 of those are for the 4th of July. With a schedule like that, there is no “rest of the year”

Although it’s a computerized process, she says the designer needs the mind’s eye, needs to know specifically what each shell does. “It’s a combination of art and science,” she says. When it comes to actually setting off the fireworks, the electronic ignition switch for each canister is lit manually by a technician.

A crew of six is on board a barge carrying 100s of 2 – 5 inch pyrotechnic rounds for both shows when it is loaded in Anacortes. By this point, a year’s worth of planning has gone into determining what product can be safely used at a given location in compliance with regulations.

Western Display has been providing the lights for our Independence Day celebrations in Eastsound since 2013.

The Deer Harbor display will be Tuesday, July 3 and the Eastsound display, visible from Waterfront Park and around the Village, is Wednesday, July 4. Both shows begin around 10 p.m.