Supposedly you can set off fireworks anytime for “agricultural purposes” in Florida, like frightening birds away from fish hatcheries. Seriously — it’s in the law. And these days, you can also shoot them off on July 4 or New Year’s Eve/Day without owning a farm – not that this recent exception has really changed anything. People have been buying and blowing up the big stuff for years whenever they want.
I’m not talking about sparklers; I’m talking about the fireworks that shoot up in the air and explode in a fountain of money. I mean, sparks.
As you might expect, our neighborhoods are full of wild private fireworks displays on the Fourth of July that are loud, beautiful, and terrifying to animals.
I was at a small gathering on a canal in a Satellite Beach neighborhood for this year’s Fourth of July celebration and got to see several of these quasi-legal home displays firsthand. They were certainly pretty.
It was a stormy night, and as the clouds rolled through, I caught timelapse sequences with my GoPro. The result is this fun little video showing just how many fireworks one can see in the middle of a Florida neighborhood on July Fourth.
Duck!
A screen grab from the GoPro timelapse of a Florida neighborhood’s fireworks on July 4, 2021.