Will the booms be back?

The dust and the explosions have barely settled at Iowa Speedway and already the Pyrotechnics Guild International (PGI) is playing with the idea of hosting its annual fireworks convention in Newton once again. Although the organization has not officially chosen its venue for 2023, the city of Newton is in the running.

“At our business meeting during this last convention, we announced that we are looking at having our 2023 convention in either Newton, with a much-improved use-of-venue-site-plan and other improvements, or in Appleton, (Wisc.),” the PGI Board of Directors announced in a Sept. 1 Facebook post.

PGI hoped to announce its next convention at the beginning of the month, but the board needs to give each site a few more weeks to finalize its plans. The board urged members to be patient as they figure out the details with the convention’s possible hosts and report back by the end of September.

Randy Ervin, a member of the city council and a lead organizer of the fireworks convention held this summer, confirmed the PGI board did show interest in holding the event in Newton for a second year in a row. Ervin said the board had a venue planned for 2023 but its changes to a site plan made it unviable.

When board members approached Ervin about the possibility of holding it in Newton again, they spoke highly of their stay in Newton. Ervin told them he did not have the authority to make that decision. Others, like NASCAR, the owner of Iowa Speedway, still have a say in the matter.

The racetrack was provided to the PGI committee at no cost, but Ervin said there is a chance organizers may not be as lucky to obtain that right again. However, Ervin met with his committee and many of the stakeholders of the event, and a majority were in favor of having the convention return to Newton in 2023.

NASCAR could not make a commitment at the time. Preferably, Ervin would like to see the convention return in 2024 to allow volunteers more time to iron out the details. Currently, there is nothing set in stone, just a lot of “maybes,” Ervin said. The council member said there are many in town who would welcome PGI back.

Of course, there are a fair number of people who would not. The noise from the frequent late night fireworks shows caused quite a stir in the community. One reader reached out to Newton News in early August calling the disturbances “absurd” and said it was causing many restless nights.

“Some people who do have jobs and commitments need to be able to get a good night’s sleep. No one wants to see this spectacle if that is the trade-off.”

Ervin said there are people who just do not like the convention, and he has to be respectful of their feelings as well when considering another year.

Economic impact was a big selling point for Newton hosting the PGI convention. For the most part, that promise was kept. The week-long convention brought several PGI members and their families to Jasper County, and when they were not shooting off or making fireworks they were visiting local shops.

“People in this town provided food and activities,” Ervin said. “Our town stepped up and PGI just loved it … I was Uncle Nancy’s this morning and I probably had three or four different business people come over and talk to me. Last night at the YMCA recognition I had people say, ‘Hey, what a success!’”

Several PGI members wore easily identifiable laniards when entering businesses throughout Jasper County. Ervin said these laniard-wearing members were found throughout restaurants, grocery stores and retail stores. Hy-Vee IndyCar Race Weekend was expected to bring economic impact to Newton, too.

“That was really cool, but those people came in, tailgated, watched the race and then went home,” Ervin said. “The PGI convention did more for the mom-and-pop businesses in Newton than anything we’ve done in Newton in several years. They both made money and are both good for the city, but as far as the average business owner in Newton I’m very comfortable saying we had the biggest impact of anybody.”

Most of the convention was closed off to members, but the PGI committee was able to set aside three public nights and sell tickets. In addition to the professional fireworks displays set off in the infield of Iowa Speedway, visitors enjoyed live music entertainment and food trucks.

PGI estimates 1,079 primary attendees participated in Newton this year, with a total of 1,706 attendees. But that is not including the visitors to the public nights. Overall, the PGI board’s president said it was “a wonderful convention,” even though there were site issues. Still, those could be addressed.

Ervin suggested site issues are not uncommon, saying it usually takes PGI two years to master the site. Newton was a new site. There are safety, legal and professional issues to prepare for. For the public who attended the event, Ervin said they would not likely pick up on these issues at first glance.

“For the people who showed up to the convention it was a huge success,” he said. “Behind the scenes there are a lot of things we can do a lot better, both from a city standpoint for the convention and from a convention standpoint for the city. There’s a lot of things behind the scenes the general public didn’t see.”

Now that PGI has held its convention in Newton and has a feel for the site, Ervin said if ever the event is held there again organizers and the board will have a clearer idea. Still, even though Ervin would like to see the convention return in 2024, he cannot rule out a 2023 event at this point.

If it is held at the Iowa Speedway for a second time, Ervin knows for certain he can count on the racetrack staff to do a fine job. He “cannot say enough” about the staff, who just a few days before the convention started had worked through the Hy-Vee IndyCar Race Weekend.

“They worked basically around the clock,” Ervin said. “They had to completely reconstruct the facility and the power grid to create a campground and pretty much create what they had to do. Hindsight 20/20, if we do it in 2023 or 2024, we need to separate ourselves from the IndyCar race a little bit.”

At least to give staff a little bit of a break and allow each event to be successful, Ervin said. Although he did argue the timeframe of this year’s convention was “perfect,” as it was before national races in Knoxville and the state fair and after RAGBRAI. Scheduling will likely still be an issue, too.

There are also so many hotel rooms in town and in the surrounding areas. Ervin said every hotel room in Jasper County was sold out. Other counties like Polk and Poweshiek also saw a fair amount of hotel rooms booked. Ervin is not sure if Newton can provide PGI with the 800 hotel rooms required to host the event.

Other logistics like that still have to be worked through for another potential hosting site for 2023 or 2024. Ervin said PGI tends to prefer a three- or four-year rotation before returning to a site. Usually the organization does not host back-to-back conventions in the same location.

“I guess that says something for our town, and definitely for the committee who worked so hard to put this on,” Ervin said. “Our town was so impressive that they were willing to break their own rule to come back here again because they just love the community.”

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com