102 replies to this topic

[chemicalwazi]

Hey Mark you 'salty sea dog', damb fine show

[The_Djinn]

Richard, I did not get a chance to take any shots during the show... but there are plenty out on the web.
Thanks chemicalwazi, mr DF never fails to pull off a great show and we had a brilliant crew who managed to constantly find energy to keep every thing running to schedule.. still trying to find my land legs are spending nearly a week out at sea and on most days it was pretty rough.. most of the water based crew are experiencing a strange swaying mation when standing or looking at one particular point... keep having to hang onto my monitor and keyboard.. and showering is a nightmare because the confined space tends to spin if you close your eye's even for a split second.

Mark

Edited by The_Djinn, 01 July 2005 - 05:07 PM.

[Richard H]

Sounds like you boys were swigging Nelsons rum

[The_Djinn]

lol.. recon someone was spiking my water supply.. up to 6L a day, was nearly drowning without falling in the water.

Anyway, Display Tonight in Chichester
Tomorrow Henley Regata London (Rowing Regata) - Pretty big display
Tomorrow Kenwood house London (Summer picnic concerts) - Concert end finale.

Am I the only one listing displays ?

Mark

[Richard H]

I would be listing them If I was crewing any at the moment Just you wait till August matey, non stop pyro crazyness I tell you!

[The_Djinn]

Yeh, going to be a busy one this year... my listing shows that I may have 2 or 3 weekends off between now and end Nov... cant complain as working with great crews. Bound to see a few more BPS members pop up here and there on some of the bigger gig's as well.

Mark

[PyroKid]

DATE: 24th June 2005

TIME: 11:20 PM

LOCATION: Jubilee Pool, Penzance

EVENT: Golowan Festival

FIRING FOR: Fantastic Fireworks

BUDGET: ?4000 aprox.

I left swansea at approximately 5:00 in the morning of Friday 24th June 2005 on what was the beginning of what turned out to be the 6 and half hour journey up to Penzance.

The weather on the way up was somewhat dismal having experienced nothing but torential downpours and thunderstorms all the way into penzance which got me thinking about whether the show would be cancled or whether the show would still go ahead, however, upon arival in Penzance at approximately 11:30 AM my worries were soon set to rest upon being greeted the beating sunshine and blue skies.

First things first, upon arival at Penzance, i proceeded to the hotel in which i was to stay the night, which was conveniently placed at 100 yrds from the firing site.

Having been shown to my hotel room, dumped my bags and having had a much needed rest, it was time to make my way down to the firing site.

The van containing all equipment and materials for the show arrived at approximately 11:30 as well as two of the five expected crew members (three crew members were now on site including myself).

Upon arrival i was greeted with the not so pleasent news that the remaining two techniciens who were making their way down from Manchester would be late upon arival, leaving the three of us to start work on what was to be a 10 hour rig.

Due to the requirements of the show which was to be fired electronicaly from three fireing locations around the perimeter of the pool, it was necessary to prepare for a hard firing site.

Having unloaded all materials and hardware required for the show, it was time to start work on the actual preparation of the show.

First things first was to sort out the material into what was required for each of the three firing locations as per the firing order.

The show included a variety of cakes / barrages of different size / effects, roman candles of various bore sizes and effects, shells of various calibers ranging from 2" through to 6" as well as single shot candle plates.

Once all material was laid out into a safe position (candles towards the front, cakes in the middle and shells towards the back) and into the appropriate firing location, it was time to begin the actual rigging of the materials required for the show, which included the securing of all material onto four beams (two on either side, one side straight and the other in a X formation) angled slightly away from the audience in order to hold the material firmly in place so that it has low / no risk of movement during the show and minimising the risk of the material falling into a dangerous position and firing into the audience as opposed to away from them.

Once all firing locations were assembled, it was necessary to position these locations into what was to be the final firing position.

Once all material was in its designated position, it was time to begin what turned out to be the long and arduous task of wiring / fusing the show together.

At this point, we deliberately left out the 5 and 6 inch shells untill last due to the fact that time was getting on and so that we had some kind of show to put on should the worst come to the worst and we ran out of rigging time.

The other 2 crew members who made their way down from manchester finally arrived on site at approximately 8:00 PM in time to help with the final preperations and allowing enough time to wire in the 5 and 6 inch shells.

By this point in time, the sky had began to cloud over so we decided to bag the majority of the material in order to keep the material dry should we experience a shower.

Everything was rigged and wired up in plenty of time for the firing system, a PyroMate mini 96 firing system, to be connected and tested as well as allowing time for the correction of a couple of minor wiring errors, and was given the all clear with plenty of time remaining on the clock before the show was due to be fired.

At quater past 11, the funfair which was previously blaring out loud music fell silent and the crowd gathered at the far side of the pool a safe distance away.

The time in which the show was to be fired drew nearer.

Everyone was nervous as to how well the show was to go.

I was on portfire duty given the task of lighting the backup fuse manualy should the electronic ignition fail, with the senior firer cuing the show to another operator who was pushing the buttons on the mannual firing system.

At 11:20 we were given the go ahead to start the show.

?4000 worth of fireworks going up in 15 minutes.

The show went relatively well with only a few minor hickups such as forgetting to wire up one of the flying fish effect cakes and one of the single shot candle plates.

Unfortunately a bank of shells failed to go off during the finale which resulted in the show coming to an ubrupt ending but still the show concluded in a cheer arising from the crowd which had gathered to watch the show.

After leaving the remaining material and hardware to stand for several minutes after the show to make sure that there was no chance of anything going off in our faces and that all material and hardware was cool enough to handle as we began the pain staking task of de-rigging the show.

The ammount of mess which can accumulate during a show can be gobsmacking.

What had previously been an immaculate poolside had now been covered in what appeared to be a coating of burnt paper and firework remains.

After removing all lives from the firing site, we continued to remove all hardware and remains from the firing site, loading all hardware and remains into the back of the van before conducting a final check to make sure that all equipment had been collected and to give the area a final sweep down.

We did not leave the firing site untill 3:00 am so as i was making my way back to the hotel in which i was staying, i was pretty much certain that i was going to have a good nights sleep prior to leaving Penzance the next day at approximately 11:30 AM.

Edited by PyroKid, 07 July 2005 - 10:37 PM.

[PyroKid]

DATE: 6th August 2005

TIME: 10:15 PM

LOCATION: Heathfield (Llethrid - North Gower)

EVENT: Welcome Home / Engagement Party

BUDGET: ?300




After a number of changes to the date in which the display was to take place due to unavoidable reasons, we were finally given the go ahead to perform the show on the 6th of August 2005.

I had spent the majority of the previous day designing the show and putting together a firing order which we would follow during the course of the display.

The display was to feature a variety of devices such as flairs, fountains, roman candles, cakes / barrages of mixed bore size and effects (including a fan cake), a couple of catherine wheels and some rockets - small, medium and large and ending in a custom built lancework.

Me and My Co-Firer arrived on site at approximately 5:00, where we carried out a brief site survey in order to determine where everything was to be set up prior to firing the show in order to ensure the display went smoothly and more importantly, safely.

After carrying out a brief site survey, it was time to proceed with the setting up of the display with the aim of finishing at approximately 6:30PM in which we would join the rest of the guests for a social drink (Pepsi, of course!) and a bit of social chit chat!

We proceeded to set up the display site firstly by positioning the lancework in its designated position.

The task did not seem as easy as we had planned!

We had planned to secure the lancework in place by using poles in which we secured to the ground by using tent pegs.

After trying this method in a number of different configurations, we gave up hope of this particular idea working and just stuck the poles directly into the ground instead of securing the poles in place with tent pegs which seemed to work like a charm!

If in doubt, always go back to basics!

With the most difficult to secure item in place, we moved on to setting up the catherine wheels in which we secured in a similar method to the lancework.

With the catherine wheels firmly in place, we proceeded to set up the rockets at the rear of the display site.

The rockets were to be fired from 3 evenly spaced rocket racks which were secured on top of a metal pole which was hammered firmly into the ground.

At this point of time, the weather had started to cloud over so we prceeded to put bags over the rockets and wheels in order to prevent them from getting wet should it decide to rain.

With the more difficult items out of the way, we proceeded to lay out the cakes / barrages in the middle of the display site making sure that all items were free to rise without any obstruction due to trees or surrounding structures (this is extremely important when using fanned effects), which we secured by using 2 stakes for the larger cakes / barrages and 1 stake for the smaller cakes / barrages.

With the cakes and barages layed out in their designated positions, it was time to secure the fountains / flairs at the front of the display site.

With the bulk of the display set up and plenty of time remaining we proceeded to set up the roman candle fans at the rear of the display site (carefuly positioned in order to avoid all trees and nearby structures) which we secured in place by using 1 stake per candle.

With the show set up it was time to set up the safety barrier which consisted of a roll of safety tape tied to a nearby fence and trellice.

With the show set up and the safety barrier in place (which we accomplished in approximately 1 hour and a half), we completed the set-up in enough time to join the rest of the guests for a social chit chat and a chance to catch some grub!

About an hour before the show, the DJ came up to us and asked us whether we would like any music to be played during the display.

After some careful thought, we strategicly sellected a compolation of dance music.

The lead - up to the display consisted of a friend of ours who entranced the audience in a stunning display of fire-poi to the sounds of the beachboys - Surfing USA.

At this point, the audience had all gathered behind the safety barrier and began a countdown by request of the DJ.

By time the crowd had reached "Zero", the music had started and the display had begun starting with the coloured flairs at the front of the display site and gradualy building up to a finale of large cakes / barrages before concluding in a special lancework (which im sad to inform didnt exactly work as planned, leaving the top of the first letter un-ignited).

Despite the failure of this particular item, the crowed errupted into a roar of applause and cheers ... a sure sign that the display was enjoyed by all.

After the display had concluded, we joined the rest of the guests to engage in a social chit - chat which included personal thanks and prommises of more work in the future while waiting for the fireworks to cool down.

After leaving the fireworks to cool down for approximately 30 minutes, we proceeded to clean up the display area which included picking up the vast ammount of paper which had spread themselves across the display site.

We had mannaged to clear the display site in plenty of time, leaving the display site at approximately 11:45 PM.

A great display was had by all.

[The_Djinn]

For those of you with time on your hands tonight and tomorrow..
Shewsbury is on. The Rev Lancaster will be there meeting and greeting all the groupies and I can gauratee a grerat show which will include some very large set pieces and various other demos alond with a pretty awsome show.
For those who get there.. enjoy!

Edited by The_Djinn, 12 August 2005 - 08:55 AM.

[RegimentalPyro]

For those of you with time on your hands tonight and tomorrow..
Shewsbury is on. The Rev Lancaster will be there meeting and greeting all the groupies and I can gauratee a grerat show which will include some very large set pieces and various other demos alond with a pretty awsome show.
For those who get there.. enjoy!

Shewsbury? What's happening there? Have I missed something?

[Richard H]

Shrewsbury Flower Show mate. They have a good show there each year. Hopefully see some of you guys and gals at Firework Champions, Stanford Hall tomorrow.

[sasman]

Shrewsbury Flower Show mate. They have a good show there each year. Hopefully see some of you guys and gals at Firework Champions, Stanford Hall tomorrow.

I have looked on there webpage but cant find out what time the display starts? any idea?.. I went to this show at Standford hall last year and i liked the way the started the display showing different size shells etc...I hope they do something similiar this year...If the display starts after 8.30 ish i may be able to get there after work..

Edited by sasman, 12 August 2005 - 11:06 AM.

[Richard H]

Hi Rob,

Times are as follows:

Demonstration organised by me! : 8.50pm

Team 1 - 9:00pm

Team 2 - 9:15pm

Team 3 - 9:30pm

Team 4 - 9:45pm

[The_Djinn]

EVENT

For those interested and with transport available,
Next Friday.. 14th October, the Rev. R Lancaster will be giving a talk about fireworks, and his life involvement and history of Kimbolton etc. at the Museum in March Cambridgeshire.
Cost is ?2.50 at the door and doors open 6:45pm

Picked this out of a local newspaper and thought for those interested it may be a pleasant evening out.

Mark
(PS: will put this in the forum calendar as well)

[karlfoxman]

Nice one Mark, that sounds interesting!! I have family that live in March so might have to use that as an excuse Are you yourself going?