Two fireworks blasts to welcome 2010

Want to celebrate the arrival of the New Year in Paris - or most any European capital, for that matter - and still be on hand to usher in 2010 in Philadelphia?

Well, that's possible this year, thanks to a change not in the law of physics but in a 19-year-old tradition.

New Year's Eve fireworks will explode over the Delaware twice tomorrow night - at 6 p.m. and midnight.

The first exhibition will launch just as the Parisiennes - who are six hours ahead - are offering champagne toasts and calling out their Bonne Anneés.

"They'll be two unique, full-length exhibitions, and they'll be synchronized to two different sound tracks," said Laurie Heinerichs, spokeswoman for the Delaware River Waterfront Corp.

The shows will cost a total of about $200,000, to be paid by the DRWC.

Yesterday, preparations for the displays were under way at the Navy Yard as workers loaded the pyrotechnics onto barges.

The 6 p.m. show, expected to last 121/2 minutes and titled "An Orchestral New Year," will feature pyrotechnics choreographed to music ranging from Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" to Danny Elfman's theme from Pee-wee's Big Adventure.

The midnight show will take a more contemporary approach. Titled "21st Century Rewind," the 16-minute fireworks display will be choreographed to 30 pop and hip-hop hits from the last decade.

Both sound tracks will fill the air from giant speaker stacks on the Great Plaza at Penn's Landing and at Wiggins Park in Camden, and they will be broadcast by KYW-AM (1060). GPS technology is being used to synchronize the music and the fireworks.

"It's truly a two-cities, two-states show," Heinerichs said.

Until this year, there had been only a midnight show on the river since the New Year's fireworks displays began in 1991.

Fireworks aficionados will be treated to several new and stunning effects, some of which have never been seen before in Philadelphia, said show producer Victor Laurenza of Pyrotecnico Inc.

Though thousands of shells will be launched - nearly four tons of them - the centerpiece for each of the night's exhibitions will be a giant arch mounted on a barge floating on the Delaware.

From the arch, sprays of pyrotechnics will create a "rising moon effect" and dazzling waves of color and light, Laurenza promised.

"I can't wait for the people of Philadelphia to see it," he said. "People will want to get as close to the waterfront as possible. People way back in Center City aren't going to be able to see them - they only go up 100 to 200 feet."

The arch effects, Laurenza said, were instrumental in Pyrotecnico taking first prize at the 2008 International Fireworks Competition in Montreal.

The other surprise will be a number of nautical shells, which will be lobbed from the barge into the river.

"They float for a while, then they go off in the water," Laurenza said. "We've used them there before on a smaller scale, but there'll be quite a few more, which will create unique symmetrical shapes and color combinations."

Forecasters at the National Weather Service were calling for a light wintry mix to fall throughout the evening.

"But we're going forward - rain, snow, or shine," said Jodie Milkman, vice president of marketing and programing for the DRWC.

Milkman said the holiday fireworks were more than a great way to celebrate the new year.

"They have a great economic impact for the city as well," she said.

The 2009 fireworks brought in $1.76 million to the regional economy and generated $176,100 in tax revenues for the city and the state, according to a study commissioned by the Penn's Landing Corp., the DRWC's predecessor.

"They're a great value. They're free. And they're a great bookend to anyone's New Year's celebration," Milkman said.

If you want to be part of the blast - and literally have a hand in bringing in 2010 with a bang - the Battleship New Jersey also is holding an auction to fire one of the ship's five-inch guns just before midnight, launching the night's second fireworks display.

Bids to sit in the mount and pull the trigger can be placed online at www.battleshipnewjersey.cmarket.com. Proceeds will go to the preservation of the World War II-era battleship, moored in Camden. The highest bid placed by 11:59 p.m. tonight will win.

"Our friends in Philadelphia do not have to worry," said Jim Schuck, chief executive officer of the Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial. "We are not using live ammo."