Saturday, September 28, 2024
In the coming weeks, Granbury will shine brighter than ever before at the annual Fourth of July celebration.
While many residents will enjoy the always-memorable parade and fireworks display, a dazzling twist will be sure to “beam” community members into a new era of patriotic splendor.
As part of the half-century celebration, the Granbury Chamber of Commerce has coordinated a laser light show to take place at 9:30 p.m. Saturday, July 6, on Bridge Street.
“This was the 50th anniversary and my way of thinking, we needed to do some things above and beyond what we would consider the norm: parade, vendors, fireworks. So, we actually started thinking about this back in January and were bouncing around ideas,” Chamber President Brian Bondy told the Hood County News. “(We wanted) something — relatively speaking — grandiose.”
With the company, Laser Encore, already working an event in Dallas July 3, Bondy said it was the perfect way to bring the community together in such a grand celebration.
“It’s really designed to bring more people downtown to celebrate the entire weekend — not just the Fourth of July,” he said.
Premier rock-n-blues band Mysterious Scoundrels is set to perform from 7-9 p.m. that night and the 30-minute laser light show will kick off promptly after.
“Everything that we do is all choreographed to music,” President and owner of Laser Encore Robert Teorey told the HCN. “It's all kind of pop, Top-40, plus classic rock music — a whole combination, but it's fun for the whole family.”
Rather than projecting the lasers into the sky, a screen will be set up in the street with a combination of both laser graphics and aerial beams shooting over the audience.
"They're all synchronized, and it's done really well,” Teorey said. “Our laser shows, compared to just a few years ago, have doubled or tripled in size, so anybody who's maybe seen the laser show years ago will be very impressed by the latest and greatest of what we're doing now; it's a dramatic difference.”
Laser Encore is a full-service production company that specializes in producing spectacular laser light shows, laser displays and special effects for all types of events nationally and internationally, according to its website.
"We go all over the country,” Teorey said. “I used to do a lot of concerts, like Electric Daisy Carnival and Coachella. I just came back from a big nighttime air show in New Jersey. We do a lot of state fairs and festivals. I specialize more in the standalone laser show; that's kind of our specialty.”
For more than 30 years, Laser Encore has customized laser light shows for festivals and events all over the nation, with the company improving its technology every year.
“Technology has been a huge part of it, where the lasers themselves used to be extremely expensive, and we used to just bring a couple lasers out,” Teorey said. “For the (Granbury) show, I think we're doing 16 systems, and we used to do, like, three. Also on the production side, we have our own in-house art department, which is a big advantage for our company, so it's just done at a whole other level. We’ve been doing this a very long time, and we've kind of found our niche.”
Bondy added that everyone always brings up the idea for drone shows during celebration events but said the laser light show is a little more “price-conscious.”
"To get 30 minutes for what we're paying is a fantastic deal. You only get one chance to do a 50th anniversary, so really, it's something extra special for the community to come out and enjoy,” he added. “It's added value for the weekend. If we're going to be the Celebration Capital of Texas, then let's go big.”
