News : How Boomtown presented by Veridian came to be 'a thing'

Fireworks fill the sky during a previous Boomtown, which returns to Vinton next weekend.

Ten years ago when the Iowa Pyrotechnic Association’s annual picnic outgrew the family farm that it had been held on for years. They came to Vinton Unlimited, Vinton’s answer for a Chamber of Commerce, offering a Pyrotechnic show for the public in exchange for hosting…and the rest is history.

As with many large annual events, there have been growing pains along they way; however, with excellent and constant communication between the 2 sides (the I.P.A. and the Boomtown Committee) those pains were quickly identified and addressed. Now, for the 10th Anniversary of Boomtown Vinton, planning moves along like a well-oiled machine.

The event alone brings Pyrotechnic Association members from all over not just Iowa, but the entire United States. They come to watch, participate and reconnect with members of their community. Not just pyrotechnic members come, but fans of pyrotechnic displays (fireworks) come, and they come by the thousands.

Boomtown has grown from having just several hundred visitors the first year, to now having so many that bleachers are brought in for the event and families and companies are planning their reunions and picnics around our date.

You’ve never seen a fireworks show like Boomtown, the visitors in the grandstands literally have their hair blown by the percussions from the shells and the fireballs…necks hurt on Sunday from being craned in order to take it all in, and ears are still ringing from the jam-packed mix of up-close-&-personal fireworks choreographed to music like no other show around.

An overhead view of Vinton would show that every inch of driveways, yards, rooftops, parking lots, school fields and all gravel roads circling town are all at maximum capacity with fireworks spectator parties of all sizes, watching with their radios tuned to a corresponding channel playing the music that those in the grandstands are hearing.

Our 10th Anniversary celebration will be Saturday, August 27th. Gates open at 3:00. For more information, visit our website at: www.vintonboomtown.com or follow us on Facebook.