ROYAL -- The Live Like Bryce-The Bryce Briggs Foundation will present its Third Annual Royal Blast Fireworks Show on Sunday, July 4, with festivities beginning at 6:15 p.m. behind the Sunshine Store at 3535 Sunshine Road.
Gates will open at 5:30 p.m. for the event, which benefits the LLB Foundation, and will take place in the large open field located behind the store. Activities including live musical performances will be held, and several food vendors, concessions and shaved ice booths will be set up on-site.
The fireworks, presented by Premier Pyrotechnics, Inc. out of Richland, Mo., and ignited by local pyrotechnician and coordinator for the event, Clint Reynolds, is scheduled to start between 9:15 and 9:30 p.m. The show will last just over 30 minutes.
"We're going to have multiple places to park," said Reynolds. "We'll have parking attendants on-site to help get everybody parked. We've got three local artists -- we have Allie Anderson that will be going on at around 6:15, then we have Bailey Blackshear that will be going on around 7:15, and then Zach Davis will be going on around 8:15. They'll play until about probably 8:45 or 9."
Reynolds said they will also be having T-shirt giveaways and other activities for the kids.
"It's a large show," he said. "I think it's probably going to be the biggest show on the Fourth and maybe the biggest show for all three days. So it's going to be a large event. There will be a chance for people to donate after the show as they leave. We take donations for the Live Like Bryce Foundation and all the proceeds go back into the community and to scholarships for local seniors and just community, you know, people in need. They gave a lot of money to businesses, last year, that got shut down during COVID. So it goes to a good cause but everything is free as far as entertainment and everything."
As the event enters its third year, Reynolds said it is a very rewarding experience to be able to help with a great cause and put on the show for the community.
"It's great, it's a good feeling," he said. "We've been working this -- the Live Like Bryce Foundation -- for its third year now and it's really been a success. It's turned out to be one of their larger fundraisers that they do per year and it's just all-around, you know, good for the community. We've got a lot of sponsors, local businesses, that come together to sponsor the actual show and we've been really fortunate with some great sponsors and it's just a good feeling to give the community an event to go to. It's a really good family atmosphere and everybody really seems to enjoy it and it's, obviously, for a really good cause so it's a good deal all the way around."
The LLB Foundation was established to honor the life of Briggs, a 2016 Lake Hamilton graduate and freshman at Arkansas Tech University who died in December 2016 at the age of 19 due to injuries sustained in a gasoline brush fire. His family and friends formed the foundation in efforts to not allow death to define his life. All proceeds help fund the foundation's philanthropic work such as donations to Arkansas Children's Hospital, where Briggs was airlifted and treated after the accident, local educational scholarships, sponsorships to various community organizations, and help to families in need throughout the Hot Springs area.
Donations to the 501(c)(3) organization are tax-deductible and will be collected as cars exit the event.
More information can be found on the Live Like Bryce Facebook page.