News Release

Festival to feature 'feel-the-thunder' fireworks, July 4

PORTLAND, Ore. (June 18, 2007) – It’s a Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival tradition! The festival kicks off this year on Wednesday, July 4, with a spectacular, “feel-the-thunder” display of fireworks at 10:05 p.m. after the evening’s final performance.

KINK fm102 will simulcast the sound track for the fireworks.

Admission to the 2007 Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival, presented by First Tech Credit Union, including the fireworks show, is a donation of $8 and two cans of nonperishable food. Every dollar donation enables Oregon Food Bank to collect and distribute about six pounds of food and fight the root causes of hunger through advocacy, outreach and education.

John Boutte to sing “The Star Spangled Banner”
Boutte will sing the anthem directly preceding the fireworks display. Boutte won Best Male Vocalist of the year at both the Best of the Beat Awards (including the most recent 2006 award) and the Big Easy Awards. His critically acclaimed collaboration with Cubanismo, Mardi Gras Mambo, won multiple awards including a Big Easy Award for Best Latin Album and a Best of the Beat Award for Best Latin Album by a Louisiana Artist.

2007 Waterfront Blues Festival fireworks show: largest display in Oregon
As long as the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival has had fireworks, Western Display Fireworks has produced the display with Bob Gobet, company owner, as the lead pyrotechnician. The three-generation company, located in Canby, Ore., originated in 1948 and has been producing fireworks shows for 57 years in the Northwest and around the United States. On July 4, 2007, the company will supply more than 250 fireworks displays throughout the country.

The 2007 Waterfront Blues Festival fireworks show will be the largest July 4th show in Oregon. The main body of the show will contain hundreds of unique effects to dazzle and entertain. The spectacular grand finale will be fired from three locations and will transition through stunning, color-changing and ground-shaking stages as it builds into an explosion of brilliant, trailing colors of ruby red and sapphire blue, twinkling strobes, crackling palms, screaming comets and thundering salutes. Get ready to feel the thunder! 

Western Display Fireworks will fire the 2007 Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival firework display from a barge on the Willamette River between the Hawthorne and Marquam bridges.

About Oregon Food Bank: Oregon Food Bank is a nonprofit , charitable organization. It is the hub of the Oregon Food Network, a statewide network of 20 regional food banks and 884 hunger-relief programs, serving Oregon and Clark County, Wash. Last year, OFB distributed 34.3 million pounds of food.

About festival sponsors: The 2007 Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival is presented by First Tech Credit Union. Major sponsors are iQ Credit Union, The Oregonian A&E, KINK.fm, Good Neighbor Pharmacy, PacificSource Health Plans, FedEx Freight, DaimlerChrysler Truck Financial, Miller Brewing, Delta Music Experience and Land Rover.

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