Fireworks – love 'em or hate 'em, the loud and colourful displays often accompany celebrations of various types throughout the year.
In Okotoks, those days are Canada Day, Light Up and New Year's Eve.
But after spectators gathered on Dec. 31 to ring in 2023, social media was flooded with comments about the length of the light show – some saying the brief display was disappointing, others expressing relief their pets didn't have to endure the loud sounds for too long.
"Wow, that was a really short fireworks display," one user posted to a community Facebook page. "I'm glad I didn't have to drive to see it."
"My dog was very happy that it wasn't longer," wrote another. "She's still hiding."
Reactions were mixed, though several commenters indicated residents should be appreciative of whatever free entertainment they can get, given the increasing cost of just about everything.
One woman said she drove in from Blackie to see the show and was happy with what she saw.
"If you’re glad you didn’t have to drive to see it, maybe you should be glad you didn’t have to pay for it," she wrote. "Fireworks are so expensive! Bravo and kudos to whoever put the fireworks on for everyone to enjoy!!"
So, during this week's Town council meeting, Mayor Tanya Thorn took the opportunity to ask what the Town has established as the service level for fireworks displays.
CAO Elaine Vincent said that a review of service levels was done recently following questions from the public. Vincent said the show wasn't what she was expecting.
"I have the most amazing view of the fireworks and was a little disappointed on New Year's Eve with the length of the fireworks," she said. "I actually recorded it at four minutes and 28 seconds."
Since then, meetings have been had with the event contractors to establish consistent levels of service for displays at various events.
"We have committed that moving forward, our level of service is broken down into two different levels of service," said Vincent. "So the same level of service is provided on Canada Day as will be New Year's Eve and that's fireworks of seven and a half minutes. On Light Up, the fireworks are scheduled for 15 minutes."
She said it's also worth noting that this year's Light Up show was quite lengthy, which further increased the feeling that the Dec. 31 fireworks were minimal.
"One of the things to manage expectations, was this was a bit of an unusual year and we had oversubscribed to Light Up and the length of those fireworks were incredibly long, so I think this one at New Year's Eve felt incredibly short and it didn't have that wonderful conclusion," said Vincent.
