NATCHEZ — This year’s Fourth of July fireworks display won’t be on the Fourth of July.

While last-minute planning has forced this year’s show to be scheduled for July 3, the show almost didn’t get scheduled at all.

First Natchez Radio Group, which normally coordinates the show, only learned last week that no preparations for this year’s show had been made, FNRG President Margaret Perkins said.

“There was just no planning for so long,” Perkins said. “We were only able to book the third on Thursday.”

But just why the fireworks show went unplanned for so long all depends on who you ask.

Perkins said it was widely believed New Orleans Hotel Consultants, which runs the Natchez Grand Hotel, was in charge of scheduling this year’s show because of statements made at multiple meetings since January regarding the group’s desire to manage the show.

“They were supposed to be taking care of it,” Perkins said.

But NOHC owner Warren Reuther said he’s not aware of any such meetings or announcements.

“I don’t know anything about a meeting,” Reuther said. “We’re not in the fireworks business.”

However Walter Tipton, who acts a liaison between the City of Natchez and NOHC, said he believed the consulting group was assisting in raising funding for the event.

Tipton said rallying sponsors for the event had been difficult.

And as of two weeks ago, no firm plans for a fireworks show had been made by Tipton or NOHC.

“Without the money, you can’t make a commitment,” Tipton said.

While Tipton maintains NOHC was not solely responsible for organizing the show, all of the previous year’s contacts for the event had been given to Tipton, Perkins said.

“We gave him everything,” Perkins said.

Tipton said one of the biggest funding contributors in the past years, the Isle of Capri Casino, announced they would not provide funding this year and made the likelyhood of the show slim.

But Thursday, Perkins said after speaking with Isle representatives, they have agreed to provide funding.

Perkins said up until last week she had no reason to believe the show wasn’t being planned and only found out third-hand that no preparations had been made.

“We came close to having no show at all,” she said.

First Natchez Radio’s events coordinator Stratton W. Hall has spent the past week scrambling to organize the event.

Hall said the people that do the actual pyrotechnics for the show are booked until 2010.

“Booking it for the third was the best we could get,” Hall said. “We just did not want the community to go without the show.”

Perkins said even though this year’s show won’t be on the fourth, she’s just glad to have one at all.

“It’s what citizens expect, we can’t just drop the ball,” she said. “It’s the Fourth of July.”

This year the show will not be conducted from a barge in the river, but the bottom of Roth Hill, due to the short amount of time to acquire permits, Perkins said.

Perkins said the view from either side of the river should be unobstructed.

“But without the sponsors we could not do any of this,” Perkins said. “They’re the ones that make this happen.”

This year’s sponsors are, The Isle of Capri Casino, the Vidalia Conference and Convention Center, the City of Vidalia, the City of Natchez, Concordia Bank, Delta Bank, United Mississippi Bank and Britton & Koontz Bank.