Mr. Johnson’s backyard fireworks was the typical: buy some and light them one by one. Mrs. Johnson was concerned for Mr. Johnson’s safety, along with one by one taking to long, and gifted Mr. Johnson a starter automated firing system in 2016. 2017 was the combination of Christmas lights with automated fireworks and the inaugural annual ‘Indiana Johnson’s 4th of July Firework Spectacular!’
2025
For family reasons Indiana Johnson’s took a break in 2025 but the Wisconsin Johnson filled the void! First for a friend’s wedding on 6 June and then on the 4th with a circus theme (believe it or not)!
2024
2024 was a busy fireworks year. In addition to the annual 4th of July shoot by Mr. Johnson and his daughter’s shoot in Wisconsin, a cast party from the local summer theatre AND there was also a daytime shoot during the Solar Eclipse in April!
2023
The theme was ‘Fireballs’, which incorporated three 6″ fuel mines into the 277 firework cues (think of each cue as lighting a fuse if done manually) …AND check out the ‘apple’ that has not fallen far from the tree…the daughter in Wisconsin that did her own show.
Mr. Johnson attended the “Shooter Event of the Year”: 2023 COBRA-CON in Muncie Indiana (11-14 May 2023) along with his daughter who has gotten the ‘pyro bug’.
They did what is called a ‘Pyro Boot Camp’…think ‘Iron Chef’ where the chefs get ingredients and a set time to create a dish, except they got a list of fireworks and a song to create a show within the day. Mr. Johnson along with his daughter and four other newfound pyro friends created the following show:
2022
Indiana Johnson’s 2022 Firework Show
COVID supply chain issues abated enough to restock with fireworks and allow us to resume a planned bigger firework show! This year, the shoot was 142 cues (think of each cue as lighting a fuse if done manually) versus 83 cues in 2021. For those that have ever bought fireworks the warning label states “Warning Shoots Flaming Balls” and some are 16 shot, others are 25 shot, etc. …this shoot was 3,942 flaming balls in 21 minutes.
Small Show for Co-Workers
Did a show on the 10th of July for my co-workers and used it as an opportunity to test a few things out (different ignitors, new firmware, integrated startup, video posting, etc.). A couple of things didn’t go as planned but you only learn from failures!
Proud Papa
Our daughter lives out of state and can’t make it to our show…so she had her own:
Christmas Lights synchronized to Music 