Following the Spirit Night basketball game, hundreds of students showed their spirit as a five-minute fireworks rained over RIMAC Field, marking the fourth-annual “Light Spectacular Spectacular” to take place at UCSD.
Presented by Pyro Spectaculars and funded by on-campus sources such as the Triton Fund, this UCSD Spirit Week tradition began three years ago by then-Sophomore Senator Melissa Tsang, who decided to arrange a fireworks show as her senator’s project. The project was so successful and popular that Tsang named it “Spectacular Spectacular,” and the Spirit Night show became an annual on-campus tradition.
Each year, a different Revelle senator arranges the fireworks show for his or her senator’s project. This year’s show was organized by Revelle Senior Senator Ted McCombs.
“Putting on the fireworks always takes a lot of planning and effort,” McCombs said. “The biggest challenge is getting funding for it from the Triton Fund and other on-campus organizations. Basically, the more funding you raise, the more fireworks you can put on. This year we were able to raise $2,000 for a spectacular show.”
McCombs said that to make the show a success he also had to get approval from the fire marshal, book a date with Pyro Spectaculars and get a permit to use the field and parking spaces.
“The Light Spectacular Spectacular is always a huge success,” McCombs said. “This year we were able to get a couple hundred students to watch the show, and I’m really happy with this year’s turnout. It was great to hear everyone cheering and showing spirit in the background while the fireworks were going.”