Cleanup Underway After More Than 500,000 Attend Fireworks Spectacular On Esplanade

BOSTON (CBS) -- The morning after more than 500,000 people packed both banks of the Charles River to watch the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular, cleanup was underway to clear the esplanade.

Star power--the likes of Demi Lovato, Nick Jonas, and Little Big Town--drew large crowds, and the weather was excellent. And to top it off, Boston Police said that not a single arrest was made during the Independence Day celebration.

Storrow Drive reopened early Tuesday morning, and some of the trash got picked up right away--but some areas around the Hatch Shell, where trailers and staging were still set up, would take longer.

"There's tons of equipment to put away, and that takes a few days," Angelo Tilas, Supervisor of the Esplanade for the Department of Conservation and Recreation, told WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Ben Parker Tuesday morning. "We're hoping by Friday, you won't know that anything happened here."

Confetti was mostly cleared from the oval around the hatch shell, but there were still sound and lighting towers to remove. Tilas said there were plenty of hands at work, though.

"We have a lot of help," Tilas said. "All the different regions of the DCR send people over, and they help out."

This is Tilas's final Fourth of July cleanup after 34 years. His thoughts on turning the page?

"Kind of bittersweet," Tilas said. "I love the event--of course, the cleanup isn't the best time, but the event itself is an awesome event."

One of the many things being done Tuesday morning was the removal of about 450 porta-potties.

"We gotta make sure we get all the waste out of them, get all the trash, and after that's done we load them up on the trucks and get them out of here," said Thomas, who was working with a crew from Northeast Sanitation out of Northboro. "It's probably going to be a very long day today."

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Ben Parker reports.