KWED, Downtown Business Alliance to host patriotic music during the fireworks
(Seguin) — Get ready to “watch” and “listen” as the night sky lights up during tonight’s (Wednesday, July 3) Fireworks Fiesta. The annual fireworks show gets underway at 9:30 p.m. in Max Starcke.
Also tonight, be sure you take your radios, phones, tablets or Bluetooth speakers because KWED is once again providing patriotic music for you to enjoy during the show.
This year’s presentation of patriotic music is brought to you exclusively by the businesses and organizations that make up the Downtown Business Alliance, which works to make downtown Seguin a more vibrant and fun place to live, shop and play.
The city several years ago moved its fireworks show to July 3, the day before the Fourth of July Holiday, in an attempt to get an even bigger show for the community.
The benefits of that move reportedly continue to hold strong. That’s according to Jack Jones, the director of the Seguin Parks and Recreation Department. Jones says one of the most important benefits is that by hosting the fireworks show a day earlier, it helps to bring an even bigger, better show to Seguin.
“When we originally decided to go on the 3rd, my public comment was ‘we got more bang for the buck.’ Well, we still get more bang for the buck by having it on the 3rd because the same company that shoots our show in Seguin on the 3rd, they go to San Marcos on the 4th and they have told me in the past and even recently, ‘you’ve got a little bigger show than San Marcos but we are getting more bang for the buck having our show on July the third,” said Jones.
Jones says this move over the years has also made Seguin a destination for having one of the best holiday shows around.
“Over time, having it on the 3rd, we’ve actually gotten one of the biggest fireworks shows outside of Austin and San Antonio. We’ve been told several times people, especially from New Braunfels, want to come here to watch our show as compared to going to even their own show. Folks tell us it’s worth coming to Seguin on July 3rd,” said Jones.
As an added bonus, Jones says it makes for an even more relaxing and enjoyable holiday.
“The fireworks show on July 4th is typically not on a weekend and you have to go to work the next day. And on July 4th if you want to, you can go to New Braunfels or San Marcos or San Antonio and go see their friends and family on July 4th outside of town,” said Jones.
In preparation for tonight’s July 3rd Fireworks Fiesta, Jones is sharing a few of the favorite spots around the park to watch the show. Although he warns about the limited spots at Max Starcke Park West near the park’s office, Jones says there is still a number of great quality places to watch this year’s show.
“People always ask us, where are the best spots to watch the fireworks show. I always say Max Starcke Park East. There’s plenty of room back over there at the park by the Little League Fields and the restrooms are open. Restrooms are also open at the Seguin Events Complex. We’ve got a bunch of restrooms in the dance pavilion. We’ve got some restrooms in the cattle barn. We also tell folks to park at the Softball Four-Plex. There is a big parking lot there and we open up the fields to the four-plex so people can bring their blankets and chairs and be on one of those four ball fields there and the restrooms will be open up there as well. There is still a lot of folks who try to come to Max Starcke Park West but there is limited parking over here and we have to control it now because it gets so congested over here at Max Starcke Park West that goes into the golf course. We are going to be controlling access to that this year and there is only a limited number of public parking over here by the golf course,” said Jones.
Making sure folks get the full experience of tonight’s show is Seguin Mayor Donna Dodgen. Dodgen says she appreciates the team that has come together to make this year’s show the best ever.
“Our fireworks is probably the best around and it has several sponsors but KWED livestreams (the music) and this year, the Downtown Business Alliance is sponsoring that livestream with patriotic music. So, you can watch the fireworks from anywhere and have the music streamed so you can get the whole feel of our incredible fireworks show or you can just listen to the music at home,” said Dodgen.
Options for listening to the patriotic music include going to AM 1580 KWED.
You can also stream the station live, by going to seguintoday.com and clicking on the red play button located on the top right corner of the page.
Plus, if you have an Alexa enabled device, you can ask her to “play KWED radio.”
The 25-minute fireworks show is being sponsored by H-E-B, Perdue Brandon, LLP, Attorneys at Law, Niagara Bottling and Caterpillar.