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Minneapolis Aquatennial Goes Out With Quite A Bang

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - The Minneapolis Aquatennial highlights everything we love about Minnesota summers: the sunshine, the lakes and being outside.

The festival closed late Saturday with one of the largest fireworks displays in the country.

The Target Fireworks show is an annual tradition, lighting up the late July sky above the Mississippi.

Doug Taylor is president of Zambelli Fireworks Internationale, who are in charge of the show.

"This is a perfect site. We got a bridge going across here; we got a great place for the spectators," Taylor said.

It's a true art form, according to Taylor.

"This is kinda like...taking the Rolling Stones on tour," he said.

His company travels all around the country doing shows - but this one, Taylor says, is special.

Ten-thousand pounds of explosives and forty-five miles of wire adorn the Third Avenue Bridge. About 1,000 man hours go into the show.

Taylor says it's all about precision.

"If the choreographer has designed the show down to the 100th of a second and we're off by a half a second, then it doesn't make any sense anymore," he said.

So all week, they've been prepping the bridge. A few Minnesotans are part of the production team as well.

It's a 30-minute show where the night is the stage and the stars end up in the sky.

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