One of Japan’s ‘Big 3’ Fireworks Shows Lights Up the Sky

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:17 JST, August 3, 2023

Huge fireworks light up the night sky over Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, on Wednesday with the full return of the city’s fireworks festival regarded as one of Japan’s three major ones. The loudest cheers were reserved for the Phoenix Fireworks (shown above), one of the highlights of the show, in which a series of bursts explode over a two-kilometer range. The Phoenix were created as a prayer for recovery from the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake that struck the area in 2004. The festival was held on a full scale for the first time in four years, without restrictions on eating and drinking. The fireworks will be held tonight.