Allegro to stage last Royal Fireworks Concert on Sunday

The Royal Fireworks Concert, a midsummer tradition for many Inland Northwest residents, may be taking its final bow. Allegro Baroque and Beyond is ending its sponsorship of the event after 35 years, said Laura Bracken, president of the chamber music organization’s board of trustees. “We are heartbroken that we can no longer fund the program, but it takes a tremendous amount of money to produce and we have determined that we can no longer sustain the losses,” Bracken said in a news release. She said in an interview that the show costs between $35,000 and $50,000 a year. About 25,000 people attend the concert and fireworks show in Riverfront Park each year, she said. It’s free to most of those people although there’s a ticketed dinner held on the rooftop patio of the Spokane Convention Center. Bracken said Allegro hopes the show can go on with another sponsor, but no company or individual has offered to underwrite it so far. The Royal Fireworks Concert features a 60-person Royal Band playing period music on the park’s floating stage, capped by a fireworks show set to Handel’s “Music for the Royal Fireworks.”