The longtime organizer of Long Beach’s beloved July 3 fireworks show is making a last-ditch attempt to save it instead of acquiescing to regulators’ demands that he switch to drones.
For the last 15 years, the Big Bang on the Bay has kicked off the Independence Day holiday with block parties, flyovers and musical performances leading up to the grand finale: an extravagant pyrotechnic show launched from a barge in Alamitos Bay.
Organizer John Morris, who owns the nearby Boathouse on the Bay, uses the event as a fundraiser, collecting $1.7 million for local charities since 2011, but in recent years, he’s been in a bitter fight with the California Coastal Commission.
The commission, which regulates public access anywhere along the state’s 1,100-mile coastline, has sway over the Big Bang because the event shuts down a public parking lot next to Morris’ restaurant. In recent years, the commission has repeatedly told Morris he must ditch fireworks and switch to drones, saying they’re less likely to pollute the bay or disrupt herons and egrets nesting nearby.
When Morris tried to get approval for fireworks again this year, Coastal Commission staff told him no. Now, he’s appealing that decision. At a meeting on Wednesday, he’ll make his case to the full commission.
“I believe I’m in the right, so I’m always going to fight,” Morris said. He’s planning to present letters from local politicians — including Congressman Robert Garcia, state Sen. Lena Gonzalez and Assemblyman Josh Lowenthal — pulling for the fireworks show to take place as usual.
He’ll likely have a tough sell.
Commissioners warned Morris in 2025 that it was the last time they would approve fireworks.
“The coastal impacts are of great concern to me,” Commissioner Paloma Aguirre said at the time.
She also expressed frustration with the lack of progress toward a drone show, even though Morris “had ample opportunity to see the direction that this commission intended to take for now a few years.”
Morris told the commission he would consider switching to drones in 2026 but — almost in the same breath — said it wasn’t likely to happen.
“We have big plans for the 250th birthday next year for this country,” he told the commission last year. “Of course it’s going to be about fireworks.”
John Morris, restaurateur, in Long Beach, on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.
The Big Bang typically attracts thousands of revelers to the Peninsula, Naples and nearby neighborhoods. Drones, Morris argues, wouldn’t be nearly the same draw.
They are also more expensive, he said, potentially cutting down the proceeds that go to local charities.
Morris said he explored the idea of drones, even meeting with Coastal Commission staff, Long Beach city employees and the Long Beach Fire Department three times since last May. Each meeting has resulted in the same answer, Morris said, that a drone show is not possible over Alamitos Bay without limiting boat traffic and beach access.
To allow a show anywhere in the city, the drones could only move vertically, cannot have anyone underneath the flight path and must take off and land from the same place, said a Fire Department spokesperson. None of the three drone companies Morris met with could accommodate those requirements, he said, so he submitted a plan for fireworks instead.
In January, Coastal Commission staff denied the permit application, saying Morris disregarded the commission’s instructions to move to drones. Commissioners will consider on Wednesday whether to overrule that decision.
You can watch the meeting online here. It is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. on Wednesday.