Cincinnati's Riverfest fireworks show has been entertaining crowds along the riverfront for decades. This Labor Day weekend, it will celebrate its 50th anniversary and America's 250th birthday with a show dubbed "The Biggest Blast in America."
Its sponsors say this year's show will be longer, with more fireworks, drones, and building-integrated effects that bring structures along the riverfront into the show's choreography.
What began as a 10th anniversary celebration for the local rock station WEBN-FM in 1977 has turned into a Cincinnati tradition.
Pyrotechnics and music were a fitting way to celebrate the rock station, which became known for its menacing humor and for launching the careers of several local media personalities. Pete Wood, son of station co-founder Frank Wood, tells WVXU that fireworks and blowing things up in general were something his father always loved. He found ways to incorporate explosives into other holidays.
"He started to blow up pumpkins. He would just get the biggest pumpkin he could find, and after Halloween, when there's a disposal problem, he would put fireworks in it and just atomize it," Wood said.
Frank Wood died in 2025.
Besides the fireworks themselves, his son says one of the WEBN founder's favorite parts of the annual tradition was seeing people all over the area come together on both sides of the river to have fun and celebrate the holiday. Though the world has changed a lot since 1977 and the fireworks show has gotten bigger, it remains an event focused on community, he says.
"I think anything that brings strangers together to celebrate together is inherently a good thing," he said. "I think the fireworks were a good excuse to party with people you don't know."
Riverfest activities start along the Cincinnati side of the river at 3 p.m. Sunday. The fireworks show is scheduled to start around 9 p.m.
Read more:
