Grand Tradition will no longer host Fourth of July fireworks

The Grand Tradition, which has presented a Fourth of July fireworks show for the past 13 years, will no longer host the pyrotechnics.

Don McDougal, CEO of the Grand Tradition, made the announcement during the Fallbrook Community Forum meeting Oct. 20.

“Primarily it was the safety concerns,” said McDougal of the decision to discontinue the fireworks. “We have a lot of housing nearby, and we’ve had some complaints about the fallout and the noise.”

One home owner brought evidence of the fallout to McDougal following this year’s show.

“When a shell explodes, that shell drifts depending on the wind,” said McDougal. “I had a neighbor that brought a bag of all this fallout that was on her roof and in her yard.”

McDougal said the Grand Tradition worked with the fire department every year in keeping the show safe.

“The fire department was always there,” said McDougal. “They’d go around and check all the houses to make sure there were not any embers.”

McDougal said hosting the show has simply become too risky a proposition.

“We’ve had 13 years without any problems, but all it takes is one accident,” said McDougal. “We just don’t feel the risk is worth the benefit.”

The Fourth of July show and the Grand Tradition’s two Signature Series Jazz and Wine Festivals held last summer helped raise funds for the Fallbrook Beautification Alliance.

“The benefit will still be there for the Fallbrook Beautification Alliance,” said McDougal. “We think that we can generate the revenue that we need from the other events that we specialize in and not have the safety factor to worry about. Next year we're going to do three Signature Series events, one in June, July and August.”

McDougal would like to see some other organization take over the Independence Day fireworks show.

"I hope that a group or organization in Fallbrook will be able to pick it up and maybe move it to another location, maybe up at the sports park or somewhere where they can still have fireworks," said McDougal. "We'll offer assistance to anybody that's interested in looking at that."

McDougal said the fireworks annually attracted "2,500 to 3,000" people to the Grand Tradition but the show was witnessed by thousands more outside of the property.

"I would say 70 percent of the people that enjoyed the fireworks never came to the event," said McDougal. "They saw it from the streets – the streets were packed with people – and they saw it from their homes and had block parties and so on. So people enjoy it, and I think it would be great if it could be carried on."