Avondale holds one of the only July 4th fireworks shows in the Phoenix-area at the Raceway
AVONDALE, Ariz. - One of the few local fireworks shows that people were able to go to this weekend was in Avondale at the Phoenix Raceway after the city of Phoenix and Lake Pleasant canceled shows this year. Tempe and Chandler will have celebrations, but not with fireworks.
Thousands showed up to celebrate over the long weekend on July 2.
"It's really sad that there's no fireworks here in Phoenix. I grew up watching fireworks every Fourth of July so yeah, what's up with that?" said Elizabeth, a Phoenix-area resident at the Avondale event.
Residents in Phoenix, Lake Pleasant, Tempe and Chandler will all have to go elsewhere if they are looking to see professional fireworks shows this weekend after those cities and towns all canceled due to the shortage of fireworks and the crews to put shows on.
Salvatore Stile, an expert in imports and exports, says it's because there's a myriad of issues at the ports right now.
"Not only were the freight rates stratospheric, but there wasn't the reliability that the fireworks were not only not going to reach the port in time but be trucked to their final destinations," Stile said.
Some importers were reluctant to ship a dangerous product that might not make it to its destination on time, and he says it shows how reliant America is on other nations for imports.
"The 10 or 11 top steamship lines worldwide, not one of them is U.S.-owned. So, we're a country that really depends on imports from so many different countries and so many different places that basically it just puts things into perspective that we're not really a manufacturing country anymore," Stile said.
He’s hopeful the U.S. can become more self-sufficient as a nation but doesn't see the supply chain issues getting resolved until the second quarter of 2023.
"There's still vessels starting to pile up in the ports of LA, Long Beach and New York and Savannah especially, so I really don't see this dissipating anytime soon," Stile said.
All this, makes those thousands who came out to Avondale some of the lucky ones getting to see a fireworks show on the 4th of July weekend.
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