Nagaoka fireworks return for 1st time since 2019

The Yomiuri Shimbun

12:50 JST, August 3, 2022

The Nagaoka Fireworks Festival, touted as one of the country’s three major firework displays, lit up the night sky Tuesday in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, delighting spectators with the blossoming of enormous pyrotechnic flowers.

The event was held for the first time since 2019, after being canceled for two years in a row due to the novel coronaivrus pandemic. The show included a fireworks combo named “Phoenix,” set off across an area about two kilometers wide, in a prayer for reconstruction from the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake that struck the area in 2004.

As measures against the virus, the organizers charged fees for all spectator seats and asked everyone to express their amazement by clapping instead of shouting to prevent the spread of airborne droplets. “The larger the amazement, the smaller the voices” was a watchword for the two-night event, which was to continue on Wednesday.