I am disappoint

7/2/2012 4:34:35 PM

ruh roh

7/2/2012 4:38:22 PM

Raleigh fireworks suck.

7/2/2012 4:44:02 PM

I am also disappoint. Family tradition was to picnic on the art museum grounds and watch from there. Back in the day you'd see all the juvenile delinquents watching from their windows, too.

7/2/2012 9:10:28 PM

^ now that's some old school Raleigh stuff right there

I am annoyed as well. I like to watch from the Goat/Pam's/BP parking lot. The fairground fireworks will still be there, right?

7/2/2012 10:52:56 PM

no...those are the fireworks sponsored by the City of Raleigh

they will be on fayetteville st

7/2/2012 10:54:21 PM

I mean during the actual fair... not the 4th of July ones.

[Edited on July 2, 2012 at 10:58 PM. Reason : sorry, wasn't specific enough. ]

7/2/2012 10:57:51 PM

I love fireworks "downtown"

7/2/2012 10:59:35 PM

oh my bad

yeah I'm sure those will still happen

7/2/2012 11:02:47 PM

I prefer my fireworks Downton.

7/2/2012 11:03:20 PM

i prefer to pretend i'm hip and watching fireworks from the heart of a "big city" in between tall buildings than tailgaiting from an open parking lot like a redneck

7/2/2012 11:42:17 PM

Sounds like worse of a traffic clusterfuck than Blue Ridge

7/3/2012 12:40:03 AM

how?

have you ever been downtown before?

7/3/2012 1:23:42 AM

My friend is DJing for the fireworks!

7/3/2012 1:26:09 AM

if you've been to any of the major downtown events (Wide Open, NYE, etc) you'll notice that people and traffic fan out in all directions faster than anything you've ever seen....it's a non issue

in the past when the fireworks was at the state fairgrounds, i agree it was a traffic clusterfuck, one of the reasons why i hardly went anymore.....one year took me an hour to get out

7/3/2012 1:26:22 AM

Gonna see it at Brier Creek.

7/3/2012 8:52:10 AM

So any good alternatives? I don't think fireworks around tall buildings will have good views

7/3/2012 8:59:59 AM

i think you're overestimating just how many tall buildings Raleigh has

7/3/2012 9:03:58 AM

That wells fargo building is twin towers huge

I'm more worried about my height challenged girlfriend having a good time.

7/3/2012 9:06:32 AM

Cary has their show at Koka Booth Amphitheatre. Last time I went they were pretty good. They have NC Symphony out there playing a bunch of John Philip Sousa as well. Or skip the crowds at Koka Booth and sit outside of Tony's Oyster Bar and watch them from there while enjoying some beer.

http://boothamphitheatre.com/events/independence-day-free-concert/

7/3/2012 9:09:00 AM

I was there 4 yrs ago. Too crowded.

7/3/2012 9:21:59 AM

^^I was just planning to hit the fireworks at Kenan, but I think I may go check out Koka Booth instead. Looks like it might be more kid friendly and interesting for them. Plus, pakring is going to be a fucking nightmare at Kenan as usual, and they will not be running any special event buses. I live 3 miles from the stadium and it would probably be less time consuming to simply walk to and from it.

[Edited on July 3, 2012 at 9:31 AM. Reason : ]

7/3/2012 9:31:04 AM

Parking at Koka Booth can suck but if you plan on going there all day for the kids stuff you might not have trouble getting parking. It's the folks coming just for the fireworks that have problems I think. They let you bring coolers so I'd stock up on drinks and food so you don't have to pay the vendor prices.

7/3/2012 9:48:57 AM

i don't think the tall buildings will obstruct any view unless you are doing what majority of folks are doing, which is viewing it from down fayetteville street......i heard you'll have a clear view if you view it from the back side

and it seems to be an all day festival not just fireworks.
i bet this is the "replacement" for what used to be Raleigh Wide Open

http://www.raleighnc.gov/home/news/content/CorNews/Articles/2012July4Celebration.html

7/3/2012 10:11:16 AM

once again, the comments on WRAL provide a good laugh

http://www.wral.com/entertainment/story/11275449/

Quote :

"The level of immature whining on here is simply stunning. No parking downtown? Do you people even live around here? We were scouting locations to shoot a video a few weeks back, and while on top of a downtown building the comment was made that Raleigh is the town of parking garages. Heck go stand on top of any parking garage, downtown, and you will be hard pressed not to see 4 others. Stop with the crying. Don't go if you don't want to go but i honestly am curious why you want to take out your frustration on an internet message board instead of actually visiting downtown to see what is going on. waaaaah waaaaaah"

7/3/2012 12:56:21 PM

I think I'm going to crawl up on my roof.

7/3/2012 1:00:22 PM

That was fucking fail Raleigh! I went to watch from the 16th floor of the Captrust tower and still couldn't see them as they weren't even close to being above the buildings downtown. Brier creek and the Raleigh country club both had a much better show. Will not even bother next year if they don't fix that. If you are gonna do them downtown need to launch from atop a building or something.

7/4/2012 10:05:14 PM

lol I heard it was full of fail

7/4/2012 10:11:44 PM

went to the Cary Fire Works with some friends and family tonight. There's nothing better than watching fireworks from a Wal-Mart parking lot!

7/4/2012 10:36:34 PM

caught the end of the brier creek ones from my apartment. they were nice. (and convenient!)

7/4/2012 10:50:48 PM

I used to do the wake forest and Clayton shows...the wf ones were usually meh...Clayton was good though

7/4/2012 10:55:40 PM

fucking sucked

a lot

i'm kinda pissed we waited that long on boylan's patio for it.

next year. illegal firework smuggling action.

7/4/2012 11:16:03 PM

that sucked

dont think we will do that again

7/4/2012 11:18:50 PM

Living in Carrboro, I could not decide where to go, as this was the first year with the family in the Triangle. I really didn't want to deal with the Kenan BS in Chapel Hill, or worry about driving into Raleigh. We ended up going to the Mebane Fireworks. That was a really nice evening. They had The Embers playing indoors and games and stuff for the kids outside, with the pyrotechnics commencing at 9:30. All in all not bad, though traffic was kind of crappy getting out. All in all we enjoyed it though.

7/4/2012 11:25:35 PM

FUCKING EPIC FAIL. OMG NOBODY BUT THE PEOPLE ON FAYETTEVILLE STREET SAW THEM.

WTF

I WILL NEVER GO BACK DOWNTOWN FOR FIREWORKS.

And traffic was a bitch

7/4/2012 11:41:11 PM

very disappointing, probably won't do that again.

7/4/2012 11:43:12 PM

Raleigh is horrible for the 4th, everyone goes out of town. Still remember the first 4th I spent in Raleigh and I had no idea everyone split town... me and another friend who had moved there were both stunned.

7/4/2012 11:44:24 PM

I left after 1 min. Couldn't see shit from the lot across from the convention center

7/4/2012 11:50:26 PM

Big fail from boylan brewpub. Couldn't see anything and they had like 4 servers for the whole place.

7/4/2012 11:50:56 PM

was it pretty much the same as new years fireworks? if so, you can't see that shit from to far out.

7/5/2012 12:04:22 AM

I dont know about new years but if you werent on fayetteville street you aint see shit

7/5/2012 12:12:29 AM

Seen fireworks in Raleigh (not downtown) and at Kenan before, but this was my first time seeing them in Cary.









[Edited on July 5, 2012 at 1:30 AM. Reason : .]

7/5/2012 1:27:36 AM

Yeah, heard lots of bad things about the raleigh fireworks...

the ones in Garner are always awesome.. Lake Benson park on July 3. Mark it down for next year.

7/5/2012 7:45:47 AM

i must be the only one who hasn't been amused by only loud noises and bright colors since I was like 8

7/5/2012 7:50:19 AM

You are so cool

7/5/2012 7:58:08 AM

if you were on fayetteville st the view was fine i don't see what everyone's problem was. i was behind the jimmy jones and could see most of everything just fine. if you don't want to deal with crowds and traffic why would you even consider going to something like that in the first place.

7/5/2012 8:04:37 AM

Good point. I will not be back.

I'll buy my own.

7/5/2012 8:16:42 AM

^^you probably had a good view because you were so close. If you were any distance away, you realized how low the fireworks were. If they pumped them up a bit, they would've been fine. I still had a good time.

7/5/2012 8:37:00 AM

yeah, when they did it at the fair grounds, you could see it from a couple miles away no prob. if they had really launched them up there, last nights show would have been better, but it was blocked by too many things in almost every direction, unless you were on fayetteville street. I much prefer the fairgrounds. Not to mention the clusterfuck that was the traffic situation last night.

[Edited on July 5, 2012 at 8:48 AM. Reason : s]

7/5/2012 8:47:47 AM

Traffic clusterfucks are going to happen with any July 4th fireworks show. I avoided this by riding my bike downtown

7/5/2012 8:50:39 AM