Content
Skip to Main ContentAccessibility Help
Windsor

They drove 800 kilometres for tonight's fireworks show

It's just not people from Windsor-Essex and Metro Detroit attending the big show tonight.

Thousands expected to flock to Detroit River for the 2017 Ford Fireworks show

Jonathan Pinto · CBC News ·
Chad Kluke and Veronique Gauthier drove 10 hours from Otter Lake, Que. for tonight's fireworks show. (Jonathan Pinto/CBC)

Chad Kluke and Veronique Gauthier started their 800-kilometre trek from the province of Quebec on Sunday in order to make it to the Detroit River for the annual Ford Fireworks.

Kluke and Gauthier live in Otter Lake, which is about a 10-hour drive from Windsor.

"I was working [here in Windsor] four years ago, and I saw the fireworks," Kluke explained. "I thought I'd show my girlfriend."

Kluke and Gauthier are just two of many to arrive at the Detroit River early Monday afternoon to get a good seat ahead of the big show. 

Patrick Sebring, Angie Schimke and Mark Jimenez drove from Waterford, Mich. for the fireworks show. They arrived in Canada shortly before noon. (Jonathan Pinto/CBC)

Mark Jimenez lives in Waterford, Mich., which is northwest of Detroit. He's been coming to Windsor to watch the fireworks for at least a decade.

"There's not a lot of places to see it (in Detroit) unless you want to pay a premium." Jimenez said. "(In Windsor) you can sit here in a park, enjoy some nice lunch — and it's safer."

Brittany Bouliane, her son Matthew and David Calus live in Windsor. David is an American living in Canada, and figures its his 47th fireworks show. (Jonathan Pinto/CBC)

David Claus is an American living in Canada. Tonight marks his 47th fireworks show — seventeen of them in Canada. He says there's an advantage to watching the fireworks on the Canadian side.

"When I used to work the parking lot over (in Detroit) for the fireworks, all you saw was black smoke," he told CBC News. 

Parking lots in downtown Windsor were filling up early Monday afternoon. At 6:00 p.m., all roads north of Wyandotte Street between the Ambassador Bridge and Devonshire Road are closed for the fireworks. (Jonathan Pinto/CBC)
Banks of portable toilets have popped up around downtown Windsor in preparation for the crowds expected to attend Monday's fireworks display. (Jonathan Pinto/CBC)
City staff have cordoned off flower beds in preparation for the thousands expected on the Windsor riverfront Monday night for the annual fireworks show. (Jonathan Pinto/CBC)

CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices|About CBC News
Corrections and clarifications|Submit a news tip|