News : Memorial Day weekend, with fireworks

Children watch and take photos and videos of shells they had made in a class on Sunday.

Before Boomtown at the end of August, the IPA members will go to Mason City for the PGI event.

Boomtown history: Posters line the wall at the meeting place at the Bar-Y.

IPA members watch the fireworks during their traditional Memorial Day weekend gathering.

IPA members meet every Memorial Day weekend to plan Boomtown and do what they love most: Fireworks!

The members of the Iowa Pyrotechnic Association, for the past several years, have been gathering at the Bar-Y Ranch northeast of Vinton, where Chuck Yedlik and his family welcome fireworks enthusiasts from all over Iowa.

The group spends the weekend discussing future events, including Boomtown and the PGI Convention/contest in Mason City two weeks earlier.

And, of course, they spend hours talking about, teaching, building and watching fireworks.

This weekend allowed the members to demonstrate projects they have been working on as they prepare to compete against other fireworks lovers from all over the U.S. (and beyond) during the Pyrotechnics Guild International Convention that returns to Iowa in August.