LEWISTON — For the first time since rockers Mötley Crüe ignited fireballs inside the Colisee, the Lewiston arena Tuesday will feature a pyrotechnics show.

“You’ll see pieces of what one would consider traditional fireworks, but it’s doing it in the context of an indoor setting,” Brian Petrovek, the managing owner and CEO of the Portland Pirates, said. “And we’re going to accompany it with music.”

The fireworks show was a tradition for the Pirates at its long-standing home at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland.

“It goes back almost 20 years,” Petrovek said. When the team relocated to Lewiston for this season, the tradition needed to move too, he said,

“It’s not something you see often indoors, and that’s the beauty of it,” he said.

It almost didn’t continue, though.

Similar shows are rare for the Colisee, Jim Mercier, the arena’s box office manager, said. The last was in March 2006, when Mötley Crüe installed pyrotechnics beside its stage.

This will be bigger, Mercier said.

Mercier and team officials worked with the State Fire Marshal’s office and the Lewiston Fire Department for about two months to get the needed permissions, he said.

“We went back and forth for a little while over whether we would get all of our permits lined up,” Mercier said. In the end, it all worked. “We’re good to go.”

Bruce McKay, Lewiston’s assistant fire chief, insisted Monday that the pyrotechnic shows happen more often than people think.

“You just don’t hear about them,” he said. They happen at Bates College about once a year. They’ve happened at L-A Harley-Davidson, Lewiston High School and at the Pathway Vineyard Church on Foss Road.

So far, the Colisee demonstration has cleared every hurdle.

There will be one more. Hours before the game, fire officials plan to witness a test fire of some of the fireworks to get the final go-ahead.

Petrovek said the display is expected to inhabit much of the ice. And if previous years’ shows are an indication, it will take seven to 10 minutes, he said.

In Portland, the Pirates contracted with Atlas Fireworks for shows. This year, the team hired Pyrotecnico Special Effects and Lasers.

Mercier and Petrovek hope the expense and preparation will pay dividends.

By the 5:30 p.m. game time, there are likely to be few empty seats.

“It’s likely to sell out right before the game,” Mercier said Monday. Sales for the game have risen since Christmas.

“We’ve been just slamming today,” he said.

dhartill@sunjournal.com

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