HONOLULU -- Crews have taken over part of Magic Island in preparation for the annual Fourth of July fireworks show put on by Ala Moana Center.

The show has been in the works for more than a month.

Tens of thousands of people gather at Magic Island to see the spectacular show every year.

Pyro Spectaculars by Souza, which has taken over the beach at Magic Island, designs and executes the show each year.

Planning began in March with selection of the music for the show.

"And then we put the fireworks to it, deciding what shell will fire when, how high that shell will go, what direction that shell will travel, the duration of the shell as it comes out of the sky," Sherry Souza said.

There are about 2,000 fireworks shells that will be shot into the sky.

"By the time we get the music, it takes over 60 hours for the show to be choreographed and designed -- 60 straight hours in front of a computer," Souza said.

The professional crew arrives about a week before the show. First, to unload and build the boxes of tubes to fire the shells, and then, to very carefully take delivery of the shells, weighing 15,000 pounds.

There are about 2,000 cannons on Magic Island. Over the next couple of days, the crew is going to load up the shells into each cannon for the fireworks display. Each shell is individually numbered by hand and loaded in a tube and eventually wired to control panels.

The show is expected to last 19:38.