So where are the best shows in WNY? Specifically looking for ones on the water this year because the wife and some friends want to watch them from the boat.
I know Tonawanda does a pretty good show but I’m wondering if anyone has heard how big the show at Canalside downtown is supposed to be?
Most of the time we walk over to UB and watch the show Amherst puts on.
Russ Salvatore is apparently going to be putting on a fairly large show at Canalside. He said it should be one for the books, but I guess we will have to see…
Went to Niawanda Park last year. I was pleased with the show, plenty of places to sit and see the show without a problem.
IIRC no alcohol “allowed” there.
I usually go to the top of Chestnut Ridge. You can see almost every show across the skyline. I’ll probably check out Canalside this year though.
I heard Canada’s fireworks last night from my house. They were weak.
UB’s was always impressive. I may check out Canalside since I love when rich people make claims about showing off.
That sounds perfect because they’ll have to be lighting them off from the outer harbor, meaning you could drop anchor on either side of the outer harbor and have a great view.
I was going to take my canoe down the river with a cooler full of beer and just sit and watch from there. I haven’t decided yet if that’s where we will go though.
I’ve always liked UB’s
those were thunderstorms
Bad idea. Coast Guard will bust you for not having lights at night. They have been going after Kayaks and stuff at the concerts when it gets dark out.
A bunch of us from work will be meeting up to float and watch the canalside fireworks.
Canalside fireworks were ok but not nearly as good as UB’s show. Glad we were in the boat because looking where they were lighting them off from my guess is if you were standing at canalside you missed all but the real high fireworks because the grain silos were in the way.
Tons of boats anchored in the harbor to check it out. Lots of idiots that managed to block the shipping channel too until the police showed up and told them to move. We’ll probably do it again next year but park outside the harbor by Wilkenson Pointe. You’d have a MUCH better view from there than from canalside.
A few pics from the phone… Still need to download the ones from the SLR.
I went down to canalside as well, but I parked at the outer harbor and walked up the service road by the old Pier location. The fireworks were launching from just the other side of the canal there just before the Coast Guard station. Fantastic show, the fireworks were huge! I was comparing them to the skyway from my angle and they were easily 3x the height of it. :tup: to Russ Salvatore for a great show!
People were parking on the skyway and just sitting there to watch the show. I noticed state troopers and BPD around, but no one said anything to anyone. I know the police block the sides of the 190 near river road to keep people from being on the highway, but I guess that didn’t happen near canal side.
Great show at canal side though :tup:
I gave Canal Side another shot this year. Went a few years back and was disappointed, then with all the hype this year decided to give it another shot. Was PACKED down there, however we still managed to get right up to the railing (near the ice cream shack) for the best view. It blew. Grain silos were in the way for parts of the low hangers, but what sucked the most was the sound was affected. To top it off the lamest ‘America’ music was pumping the whole time.
Maybe from a boat it’s better. Maybe the outer harbor is better. But from Canal Side I wouldn’t go back…unless they made the finale the implosion of that stupid ass grain silo, Fight Club style with the Pixies playing in the background.
Yeah it should have been advertized as an outer harbor show because that’s where the best views were. There, or on top of the skyway.
So I was right on my silo/angle estimation. 
We started the show with the radio tuned into their “synchronized music show” channel and quickly realized it wasn’t really synchronized and just a bunch of shitty music with Murica themes and shut it off. We could still hear it from the canalside speakers but it was really low and easy to tune out.
A: This was where we anchored.
B: This is was the bay we scoped out earlier trying to figure out where they were going to launch from. This is where I will anchor next year. If you wanted to check it out without a boat and without the crowds of canalside there were quite a few people on shore at Wilkenson Pointe that must have had an awesome front row seat to the show.
C: This was a Coast Guard boat that I thought was just doing random inspections but later realized was stopping boats from getting too close to the fireworks launch.
D: This is where I’m 99% sure they launched from, with them angled to fire out toward A. It lines up with the view we had that put us JUST beyond being blocked by the silo.
The finale was pretty good but nothing like the seizure inducing finale of the UB show. My biggest complaint was there were so many identical mortars that they sent up one at a time prior to the finale. It would have been a lot better show had they made it shorter and timed more of those to go off together.
We watched from a nice little dock at the small boat harbor. No one but us. Great spot for the show. Leaving was another story. Took at least 45 minutes to get out of the parking lot onto Fuhrman. Total Fuster Cluck. Thanks to the NFTA cops for driving around doing nothing.
I parked facing the city on Furhman. We watched from a nice little hill that gave us an unbeatable view of the fireworks. When over we casually walked over to the car loaded up drove past the massive pileup of traffic in the direction of the city, got on rt.5 and flew past the backup. The show was really good and I will do it again next year.
