Rockford Has Some Awesome Fireworks, But Japan Holds the Record for the Biggest
If you're a lover of fireworks (and really, how could you not be?), you know that we've got it pretty good here in the Rockford area. You've got all kinds of spots that will be filling the skies with color and sound. Rockford, Loves Park, Machesney Park, Cherry Valley, Byron, Durand, and so many more are all going to deliver big this Independence Day.
However, if you're looking for the biggest of the big, the "Mother of All Fireworks Shells," if you will--Japan is the current title holder, according to the folks at Guinness World Records.
Alps Fireworks Industry Co. Ltd (Japan) burst into the record books by setting off the Largest aerial firework shell ever, at the 13th Kounosu fireworks festival organised by Kounosu Junior Chamber of Commerce, in Kounosu, Saitama, Japan, on 11 October 2014. This colossal rocket shell weighed an incredible 464.826 kg (1,024.76 lb), exploding the previous record of 418 kg (921.53 lb) which was achieved by by Zenji Honda at the Katakai Fireworks Festival in Ojiya, Niigata, Japan back in 1985. The huge firecracker reached an awe-inspiring 907 m (2,975 ft 8.66 in) from the ground to the top of the explosion, 533 m (1,748 ft 8.25 in) from the ground to the centre, and measured 748 m (2,454 ft 0.81 in) in diameter when it was launched.
This one, also from Japan, is pretty impressive too:
As for the biggest fireworks shell in America, the record goes to Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2016: