Show set for July 2 at fairgrounds
Fireworks will be returning to Aurora with a bang this year as the beloved Fourth of July event returns to the Hamilton County Fairgrounds on Thursday, July 2, with the show to begin at 10 p.m.
The fireworks display was discontinued in 2024 due to the cost of organizing the event. After being asked time and time again, Aurora Chamber of Commerce executive director Tamar Jimenez approached her board to bring back the community event.
“When I first took over the role here last June, a lot of citizens came up to me and that was their most frequent request was to bring back the fireworks,” Jimenez said. “I approached my board, and we had a meeting about it and voted, and of course, ‘If you can make it happen, that’s great.’”
Jimenez gave credit to the sponsors of the named “Fourth of July 250 Years Firework Show” for making the event possible. Sponsors supporting the show include Black Hills Energy, Fortitude Mining, Memorial Community Health, Big Iron Realty, Scooter’s Coffee, KAPPA Ethanol and Hamilton County Agricultural Society.
“It’s really thanks to these sponsors that any of this is possible,” she said. “It’s thanks to these few companies that believed in the Chamber and believed in this event that contributed to fund it. So thankfully, with the money that they put forward, we’re able to afford a fireworks show.”
Jimenez expressed gratitude to the Hamilton County Ag Society board for providing space for the fireworks.
“I went in front of their board to ask permission to have the fireworks and they’re amazing,” she said. “They said, ‘Yes, you can do the fireworks and we’ll let you do it here for free. That’s how all of this is really possible.”
The grandstands will be open to the public at 6 p.m., along with concessions operated by Hamilton County Ag Society volunteers and members of the VFW Post 4993.
“They’re going to let the VFW work with them in the concession stand, so that the VFW will also make some money,” Jimenez said. “They’re going to donate that towards the manpower.”
Music will be performed by L&M, a military-veteran band based in North Platte, starting 7 p.m.
“I couldn’t find a local band that was available on this weekend because everyone was booked,” she explained. “I reached out to them and they said, ‘We would love that. We would be honored.’”
Instead of firefighters lighting off the fireworks, licensed display operators, such as Jason Fry will handle that detail.
“He sells fireworks and he helped me figure out the schematics, illegalities, and of course, the inventory and the manpower,” Jimenez said.
Along with Fry, four other operators will be involved.
“You got to have a license through the state of Nebraska,” Fry said. “All of our fireworks that will be shot off during the show here are display fireworks that we will have.”
The display will use artillery shelling and cake fireworks, with the show lasting 30 minutes.
Both Jimenez and Fry encourage the community to watch the fireworks display located south of the grandstands.