PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — The sky was lit up over Hartwood Acres Saturday.

Thousands of people gathered there this Memorial Day weekend for the first-ever “Pyro Fest” celebration and it did not disappoint.

“There’s just something exciting about the booms and the bangs and the colors and the ‘awwwws’ and watching the expressions on the kids’ faces,” said John Dimond, who came out to watch the festival.

But you didn’t have to be a kid to enjoy these fireworks.

Touted as “America’s Largest Fireworks Festival,” Pittsburghers came in droves to see the beautiful beams of light shoot into the sky above Hartwood Acres.

“They have these festivals all over the country and I’ve never been able to get to one, and I found out a few days ago that we were having one here, so I said, we’re going,” Barry Adams, a fireworks enthusiast, said.

Pittsburgh legend B.E. Taylor took the stage in between the firework displays to provide some family fun, which is exactly what Pyrotecnico – the New Castle-based company who put on the show – said it was aiming for.

“The guys on the crew said, ‘hey, we’re just basically having a company picnic, and we just invited 10,000 of our friends,’” said Stephen Vitale, the president of Pyrotecnico. “It’s been a long time coming. We’ve been thinking about this, it’s been in our hearts and our minds for the last 10 years, and for it to come to fruition now, we have a beautiful day, great bands, a lot of families. It’s really everything that we’ve hoped.”

The shows took four to five months to design and choreograph, and the labor of love was much appreciated by the thousands who came out to enjoy the show.

“I really enjoyed the military salute that they did,” said Lauren Roche, who traveled from Baltimore for the show. “The ‘21 Gun Salute,’ I thought that was a very nice touch.”

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