[ShabahZ280]

Labor Day is THE busiest and craziest weekend on the Ohio River, and has been for over 31 years. Every year since 1976, the local hard rock radio station WEBN, gets together with locally owned Rozzi's Famous Fireworks, and many other local sponsors, for "Riverfest", a day long celebration that concludes with a fireworks show that's among one of the best in the country.

During the earlier parts of the day, there's all sorts of things to do, on both sides of the river. (Ohio and Kentucky) Everything from Live Music, to games, festival food, and even the "Rubber Duck Regatta", where 75,000 rubber ducks are dumped into the river, and the first one across the finish line wins a new car!

Around 2-3pm, two barges arrive, and face head to head in the middle of downtown. These two barges, which total length is over 500ft, are loaded with hundreds of thousands of fireworks shells. Each one is electronically controlled, and synced to a computer based system which is then synced with WEBN's custom made musical soundtrack.

The event has been known to attract more than 500,000 people, and over 1000 boats. Boats come from as far away as Pittsburgh and will anchor days in advance to get the best spots. Barge traffic is closed at 8am, and the USCG, Power Squadron, CG Auxiliary, and local water patrols enforce idle speed up and down the river at 8am for all boats. Boats are tied up, sometimes 20-30 wide, and it's a great time to be had by all!

We arrived later than usual due to my girlfriend having to work. So, we arrived downtown around 5:30. Anchor was tossed, and the party began for us. I had an assortment of beverages onboard. Rum, Margaritas, Corona, Miller Chill, wine, and tons of water & gatorade for thirst quenching.

The pics show some small raftups around us. It doesn't look like a ton of boats, but keep in mind, they line the 5 miles of shoreline around downtown. Somewhere there are some aerial shots of the river, if I find them, I'll post it. It's insane.

But anyway, they were dedicating the show to the Armed Forces, and flew a giant C-130 plane 200ft above the waterline, which was frickin amazing! I've got video of it, if anyone really wants to see it, let me know!

The show started at 9:05 and was great. Here's some of the pics. I've got some quicktime videos of it too, plus it was streamed on the net if anyone wants to check it out. I'll post the links later!

[indykoch]

Looks great! Sounds like a really good time. That's only 2 hours away from me, maybe I'll keep it in mind for next year.

I'd like to see the C-130 video if you have an easy way to upload it. My cousin is a C-130 pilot. Not the most glamorous jet/job, but that monster is big and beautiful to me!!!

[ShabahZ280]

Yeah, you should check it out, if not by water, by the shore. It's worth a 2hr drive! If you decide to bring your boat, let me know, and we can start a Mariah raft up!

Here's a link to the C-130 video. It's 2.8MB
C-130Flyby.mov

[KSP181]

If there is a Mariah raft-up next year, count me in.