BLOOMDALE — Featuring a rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack, the computerized pyromusical fireworks show at Elmwood High School is set to be bigger and better than last year.

The second annual Community Fireworks show, to be held at Elmwood High School on Saturday, is expected to have more than 2,500 spectators, with five fire departments bringing their trucks.

“Each year during the summer I return to the area to put on a professional level fireworks show as a gift to the community where I grew up,” Dan Schreiner, with Rocketship Pyrotechnics, said. “You will see effects in our show that you don’t get in other shows.”

He is a fire battalion chief of the Virginia Beach Fire Department, but grew up in West Millgrove.

This year’s show is called “Do you remember rock and roll?” The 20-minute show will include songs from the 1950s through the 1980s.

“We play songs from four decades, so I think the crowd is really going to love it,” Schreiner said.

Last year’s show was called Rocket Girl. There were more than 1,500 in the audience.

There were some technical difficulties last year, related to the excessive rain the region experienced. Schreiner called the ground “a spongy mess.” This year they will be taking two full days to set up with a new racking system that should help to avoid those problems.

“We’re going to have lighting effects. We’re going to have smoke effects. We’re going to have fire effects, music, obviously and then the fireworks themselves. It’s a unique type of fireworks show. I tell people that this isn’t your typical municipal fireworks show, where you want to sit in your car a third of a mile away,” Schreiner said. “This show, you want to be back behind Elmwood High School in a lawn chair, sitting in that parking lot.”

He said that those who are too far away will miss a lot, especially the music.

“We want you sitting in that back parking lot, to take in that sound. Believe me, there will be plenty of sound,” Schreiner said.

A pyromusical is designed on a computer, with the fireworks timed to the beat.

“They are becoming all the rage in the fireworks community. Now that you can buy computerized firing systems, you can program this computer system to set off your fireworks down to the 100th of a second,” he said. “A lot of the fireworks we use are called a one-shot. They are a comet, or a mine, or a slice, which fills the sky in what looks like a fan.”

This isn’t your typical fireworks show, Schreiner said.

“We literally spend a couple hundred hours each year planning and scripting a pyromusical fireworks show, where the fireworks are closely coordinated to music.”

Since last year’s show, Rocketship Pyrotechnics has been incorporated as a non-profit public charity.

“We are now raising money for the Wood County Firefighters Association, our chosen charity,” Schreiner said.

The association sends firefighters to the Fire School at Bowling Green State University. The five volunteer fire departments are Wayne, Cygnet, Central Joint, Bloomdale and Perry Township-West Millgrove.

Those are the five closest fire departments to Elmwood. They will have displays along with their trucks.

They are attempting to raise $15,000 this year, which will include $3,000 to the Wood County Firefighters Association.

“We don’t make one red cent off the show. We do it because we want to share our passion of fireworks with the community,” Schreiner said.

The show will be bigger than last year’s. The budget for fireworks has almost doubled, from $5,500 to $10,250. He said that part of the increase is due to inflation.

“The other reason is, we’ve really expanded the amount of professional grade fireworks we’re using in the show,” Schreiner said.

He’s a member of the licensed fireworks distributor in Virginia, and also a member of the Northeast Ohio Pyrotechnic Group, which also covers the $1 million insurance policy.

However, Schreiner believes the show will have the same value of fireworks as the shows in bigger cities, because they are getting everything at wholesale prices, making it more like a show in the $45,000 range. Yet, it will still be very different, because it is a pyromusical show.

“That’s more bang for the buck,” Schreiner said.

Donations can be made to Rocketship Pyrotechnics, 3917 Flagship Way, Portsmouth, Virginia 23703.