FARMVILLE — A big bang theory will be performed live next Thursday, with an encore performance the following evening.

Yes, they were invented by the Chinese over a thousand years ago and, if rain doesn’t blow their fuse, fireworks will be cleared for take-off to rocket and red glare above the Farmville Regional Airport on Thursday, July 3.

Second helpings of fireworks, along with stew, will be served up the next day, July 4, by Meherrin Volunteer Fire & Rescue.

Rain washed out last year’s Farmville celebration of Independence Day, forcing the Town to reschedule the 2013 display for the Labor Day weekend but fireworks aficionados are full of optimism the weather will cooperate in 2014.

The Town’s Fireworks After Dark event plans to live up to its name, with the gates opening at the airport at 4:30 and admission $5 per vehicle.

Following the singing of the national anthem by Farmville’s own Amena Sims, the Class Act Band will prove itself noteworthy from 6-7:30 p.m.

A big talent show, with a first prize of $150, will follow from 7:30 to 8 p.m. Soul Expressions Band will then take the stage at 8:15 p.m. for a performance ending at 9:40 p.m. when, after dark, the fireworks display will lift off.

When the sky has finished breaking out in its pyrotechnic rash, Soul Expressions Band will end the night on a high note following a final 30-minute performance.

Food will be provided by local vendors and, while coolers are welcomed, no glass bottles will be permitted.

No pets, either.

Nor grills.

But there will be Bounce Houses for kids and, of course, the fireworks.

Meherrin

The Fourth of July celebration in Meherrin is a daylong event, with craft vendors inside the department’s bingo hall from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The stew and bake sale gets underway at 11 a.m., so the early Independence Day bird can get far more than a worm.

At noon, food and additional craft vendors will be available and the live music gets plucking at 3 p.m. with Hard Drive and Klaxton Brown.

The fireworks get lit up at dark and don’t worry about your dog, cat or guinea pig being startled because pets are not allowed. Nor is alcohol.

But there will be lots of fireworks at both venues next week.

Skyrockets and those launched by a mortar-like device.

Some with sound effects:

Crackles and hummers, bangers, boomers or whistlers.

The visual effects found in many commercial fireworks displays include peony, chrysanthemum, strobe, falling leaf, dahlia, spider, horsetail, waterfall and diadem.

China continues to be the world’s leader in manufacturing and exporting fireworks and local skies won’t be any stranger to them next week.