Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Dec 18/98) - Two years ago, Rick Lindsay helped hook fireworks to a computer so they would explode to the beat of the music.

He calls that a lot of work -- taking a week to set up. What's more is that when the fireworks team finally got all the fireworks set up and the show was ready to start, the temperature dipped to -48 C and the computers froze.

"This year is going to be a lot simpler, like last year's show," Lindsay says.

"As far as the technical side, it's simple."

Incorporating fresh-from-the-market sky-brighteners together with the tried and true, Lindsay says this year's show will include a full range of fireworks dazzling the crowd from 10 metres away right back to the extra-big 25- centimetre bombs that will be 500 metres away when they fire to fill the sky with colour and sizzling etchings.

Thin, sinuous ghosts of smoke will then sketch scrawls as they writhe and dissipate into the black sky.

"These are impressive pieces of fireworks," gushes Lindsay.

Some of the most popular fireworks are ones called Serpent's Nests, because big white arms appear like a nest.

Serpent's Nests blast in the air in a spectacular white flash before sending out little white trailers which spread like arms. Then, at the end of the arms, another burst showers reds, blues and silvers onto the night canvas.

"We're pushing pretty hard to try to keep it 20 minutes. If you make it longer than that then people get bored," Lindsay says.

The display is scheduled for the night of Jan. 8 at the in-town airstrip.

Firefighters are fund-raising for the $10,000 event and town council has agreed to spend up to $5,000, if needed.

With several families struggling to get by this Christmas, Lindsay wonders aloud whether the display is a worthy expense.

But, for those keen to help fund the event, organizers are selling 350 T-shirts and 350 sweatshirts.

"I agree it is a lot of money," Lindsay says.

"And it takes a lot of work to raise that kind of money every year. So, are we going to maintain this cost every year? Does the town want us to? This is what we're going to start asking the citizens of Inuvik in the new year."

However, since the next year's celebrations induct the third millennium since Christ was born, Lindsay suggests two nights of fireworks are also possible -- one for New Year's Eve 1999 and one for the return of the sun in the year 2000.