FAIRMONT – With the 250th anniversary of America a week away, the Light, Noise and Smoke, a non-profit run by the Fairmont Firefighters, is bringing more boom for the extra-special occasion.

The annual fireworks display over Lake Sisseton, which takes place at dusk, will follow the Fairmont Area Chamber of Commerce’s fourth annual boat parade at 11 a.m., a new medallion hunt, starting at 1 p.m. and a special city band concert at the Sylvania Park Bandshell at 8 p.m..

To bring more boom to the fireworks display, Chairman Sam Cress said they are making a big change, as Premier Pyrotechnics out of Mankato will now be handling the setup and execution of the fireworks themselves.

“This year is actually a brand new company we’re using for the first time,” he said. “We’re going to more of a turnkey, where this company can come in and provide all the labor to set up and do the tear down, where we don’t have to get volunteers to do that like they have in the past, especially with this volume for this year.”

In a standard year, their budget will be around $26,000 and use 600 firework shells. This year, they spent $50,000 and will have around 1,300 firework shells, with a red, white and blue theme. This expansion for the special anniversary has been on the organization’s mind for a while.

“It’s been coming down the pipeline,” Cress said. “I’ve been budgeting, we’ve been working on it. I knew it was coming up, and if fundraising allowed, we just wanted to do something special.”

With that said, Light, Noise and Smoke have been working for months to ensure they could do what they wanted to.

“About September to October, look at finances and come up with a budget and see what we can spend, depending on a number of factors,” Cress said. “Then we determine a budget, then we get a proposal and then we sign a contract, typically in October, November timeframe.”

So they can continue to do shows yearly, Light, Noise and Smoke have been working on their strategy regarding fundraising. Cress stressed they are an independent non-profit, not affiliated with the city or any other entity. This means they have to find the funds to keep an annual firework show going themselves.

“We’ve just had the aluminum can trailer, which was not sustainable,” he said. “We’ve got a website now, along with a PayPal link that people can donate to our website. We just recently sent out a mass mailing to businesses, which we’ve never done before, asking for donations and support, so that just recently happened, and we’re optimistic about that.”

This year’s show is already paid for, but Cress said they push for donations now to fund next year’s show, as now is the most common time for fireworks.

“It’s not guaranteed funds to us,” he said. “If we stop fundraising for this, then the show goes away.”

With the combined work on the execution of this year’s event and already working on next year’s version, Cress said they want more than anything for there to be good weather.

“It’s an extremely difficult situation [if you] have to postpone it,” he said. “It’s not taken lightly, but hopefully we have great weather on Saturday (July 4). Hopefully fundraising goes well, and we’ll continue after the fourth. We’ll keep fundraising and being active on social media.”

For more information or to donate, visit fairmontfireworks.com

This is just the fourth year that the Chamber has put on a boat parade. President Kandi Menne said they have received good feedback on the event so far.

“It’s been really, really good. From what we’ve heard from the participants in the parade, they have a lot of fun on the route. The spectators watch it because it’s something else for them to do on the Fourth of July,” Menne said.

As of Friday afternoon, 25 different watercraft have registered for the parade. Last year 32 were registered but Menne said some people tend to register on the later side.

New this year are different categories for prizes. While in previous years awards were given to the best decorated boat, pontoon and jetski, this year they are going to the most patriotic, best overall theme and watercraft with the best energy.

“It could be three boats, three pontoons or three whatever,” Menne said. “We thought we’d change it up this year.”

Those registered are asked to meet at the Chain of Lakes Yacht Club on Hall Lake by 10:45 a.m. on July 4. Then as the parade starts at 11 a.m., the lead boat will lead the parade around the east side of the three lakes and end at Marina Lodge on Lake Sisseton.

The medallion hunt, which is new this year, is being sponsored by CCF Bank. The first clue will be released on the Chamber’s Facebook page at 1 p.m. and then posted every hour after that.

The person who finds it is asked to post a picture with it and will be given $100 in chamber bucks.

People interested in participating in the parade are asked to register on the chamber’s website, fairmontchamber.org, by Wednesday, July 1. Then they will be emailed their number for judging purposes. Menne said if people register too late, they can still participate but won’t be judged and will not be eligible for prizes.