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Fireworks display on the River Thames in Woolwich with a Tall Ship silhouetted in the foreground.

Sail Royal Greenwich

We have fired a number of stunning displays for Sail Royal Greenwich and the Royal Borough of Greenwich since 2012 and 2017 was no exception. Four displays were booked on the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights as a fitting finale to an evening Sail along the River Thames. Firing on the river presents it’s own set of challenges. Booking a barge or firing platform large enough to fit a fireworks display onto, arranging for a tug to tow it and hold it in the correct position when the display is fired, a safety boat (just in case!) and also liaising with the Port of London Authority who police the river and provide information to other river users that the display is going ahead.

We were booked for three shows in Greenwich moored close to the Old Royal Naval College and one night in Woolwich just outside the Woolwich Arsenal. The three Greenwich shows were not to music but the final display in Woolwich was closely choreographed to a mixture of classical music and film scores suitable for the large family audience which had assembled along the riverbank to watch. The Tall Ships began arriving back with more spectators on board and eager to see the show and they created a beautiful backdrop to the fireworks with the shell bursts visible through the lines of the sails. David Tyrrell from the Woodford and Wanstead photographic Society managed to capture the featured photograph which we feel is one of the best fireworks photo’s we’ve had taken – well done David!

Everyone was treated to a magnificent aerial display of fireworks lasting 8 minutes with a befitting red, white and blue finale!

 

 

 

Huge display of fireworks at Catton Hall festival of fireworks

Festival of Fireworks

The Festival of Fireworks held in the grounds of the stunning Catton Hall in Derbyshire is an annual event. Four teams are invited to take part to provide a display, choreographed to music and with a duration of 10 minutes. The event is a little different to other fireworks festivals because this one isn’t a competition as such – although everyone goes there with the full intent of putting on the best display they can on the night! There’s a great atmosphere and lots of camaraderie between the teams and it’s always very interesting (for us at least) to see how other pro companies approach a big display like this.

We had last taken part at the Festival in 2011 and were chomping at the bit to go back again! The Alchemy Team was pretty large with everyone wanting to be a part of what promised to be a special display. We arrived at around midday on the Friday with the displays all due to take place on the Saturday evening. With poor weather forecast for the Saturday daytime we were keen to get as much done as possible on the Friday whilst the weather was fine and dry. And with full credit to the team, apart from a few electrics and bits that we didn’t want to be left out overnight, we were done and dusted by around 8pm that evening! It was a good job really because, as forecast, the rain came early on the Saturday morning and stayed around for the majority of the day! Thankfully, by the time the audience began to arrive it stopped raining and the skies began to clear.

At around 7pm whilst it was still daylight the audience were treated to a daylight fireworks display consisting of beautiful coloured smoke trails and a myriad of noise effects. The majority of the public probably aren’t aware that fireworks can be just as impressive in the day but our previous shows at Leeds Castle and for Middlesbrough Mela show that they really are!

As darkness fell, the first company fired their display and then it was our turn. We had been testing all afternoon so were confident of a flawless performance and boy did we deliver! Nearly 1300 cues in 10 minutes lit up the skies over Catton Hall as the audience were treated to a pyrotechnics masterclass. Using a full array of material from China, the UK and Spain we used some brand new effects called ‘Ultra Fast Comets’ which were just ideal for hitting some of the faster sections of the music. Our show was extremely well received by both the public and pro companies alike. Some of the feedback on one of the forums can be seen here:

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We had two videos produced on the night to showcase the level of choreography accuracy that we work towards. You can view those here:

 

 

Fireworks spelling out '25' above Hampton Court Palace for the 25th Anniversary of the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show

RHS Gala Preview Fireworks 2015

We love working with the events team at RHS. We’ve known them for many years and always produce a great show for them. But for their 25th year at Hampton Court they wanted something different – something special. What could we do that hadn’t been done before – something that people would remember? Just under a year before the display we met to discuss potential ideas and it was at this meeting that I came up with the idea of producing a big ‘25’ in the sky using single shot roman candles. Of course, they fell in love with the idea. All I needed to do was make it happen! As luck would have it I knew of someone that had produced a 5,4,3,2,1 countdown. A few calls later and we had ourselves a ‘25’!

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On the day we were blessed with warm sunshine and calm conditions. The display fired beautifully and there was an audible gasp from the audience when the first ‘25’ went up. In hindsight, I am so pleased that we did it twice so that those who missed it the first time got to witness it on its second firing.

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Red, Orange and White reflected

I have been asked many times since how we did it. The answer? Great product, perfect spacing and positioning of the material, clever technology and some blood, sweat and tears! Was it worth it?

Take a look at the video and see for yourself…

 

 

Coloured smoke trails and silver comets for a daylight fireworks display in Middlesbrough

Middlesborough Mela Festival

Alchemy Fireworks produced this colourful professional daylight fireworks display as the finale to Middlesbrough Mela. Working from the top level of a shopping centre car park with very little room for error meant that we had to choose the right material for the job whilst still having an impact in the daylight. The display was the finale for the celebrations on a Sunday afternoon so was fired at around 6pm. We worked closely with the organisers to produce a suitable soundtrack for the display and from that produced a very closely choreographed display which was digitally fired using a timecode track. This was the result!

 

 

Young female paralympian surrounded by flames and pyrotechnics at the Paralympic torch lighting ceremony

Paralympic Ceremony 2014

Alchemy Fireworks were asked to provide effects, flames and fireworks for the Paralympic Torch Lighting Ceremony in 2014. As the armillary sphere spun it created a spark and chases of silver jets around the edge culminating in a ring of flame from which the torch was lit. The moment culminated in a magnificent display of fireworks choreographed to music from the acclaimed composer Dan Jones.


Take a look at the video…

 

 

Fireworks from the top of Tower Bridge for the diamond jubilee pageant

Diamond Jubilee River Pageant

Alchemy Fireworks were honoured to be asked to provide the closing ceremony daylight pyrotechnics for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Thames River Pageant. This short and spectacular sequence was fired from the Upper Walkways of Tower Bridge, in the centre of London, which was the focal point for the end of the Pageant.

As you can imagine, this was an extraordinary event in an extraordinary loaction. Although the Bridge was opened with a celebratory volley of cannonfire this was the first time that fireworks have been fired from the bridge itself since it’s Centenary in 1994. The consultation process was long, including dozens of visualiations of what the sequence could look like, effect testing at Alchemy HQ to see which products were most effective in daylight, whether it was a sunny blue-sky day or a grey cloudy one. Of the traditional patriotic colours it was decided that blue was not strong enough in daylight, and that red would offer greatest contrast whether the sky was white or blue, so we majored on red, with a little white for contrast.

 

Apart from the pyro itself we also had to demonstrate that our planning, equipment, and H&S practices were all up to scratch. When we received the green light it was all systems go to fabricate the rigging, prep the pyro and then install the pyro cradles and test the firing system on site. To achieve this we worked in the early hours of the morning to ensure that we would not impact on the Bridge’s exhibition opening hours, and allowed sufficient time in advance to allow contingency rigging days should the weather make high level work impossible.

As it happened, the conditions for rigging were perfect, but the conditions on the day of the event were anything but… a combination of unseasonably cool temperatures, low cloud, gusting wind and persistent rain that varied from drizzle to downpours: in short, a pyrotechnician’s worst nightmare. With the Pageant drifting behind schedule we had to use our judgement to keep the firing system and pyro waterproofed until the last possible moment, while still giving our rigging team enough time to safely peform this high-level work in horrible conditions. We knew that we had to be ready to deliver safely and on-time as some of the other finale elements of the Pageant – like the Helicopter flypast – were falling by the wayside due to the awful weather. Finally our cue came, and as the National Anthem ended on The Symphony, the sky above Tower Bridge was illuminated with some 288 effects in under 7 seconds. Coloured mines and noise effects rippled back an forth at 1/10th of a second, controlled by our state of the art FireOne UltraFire software, before simultaneous lifts of magnesium mines, screechers ad flash salutes ramped up both the brightness and the volume of the sequence to a thunderous end. As the finale reports were still echoing around the City, the River came alive with the horns of boats up and down the Thames, ringing out their approval for a historic event, of which we were honoured to be a brief, noisy, colourful part.

We are, of course, very grateful to those involved in granting permission to us to work on this unique, iconic, historic and sensitive landmark including Bridge Master Eric Sutherns MBE and all the staff at Tower Bridge, to Paul Monaghan and co at the City of London, to Deputy Harbour Master Steve Rushbrook of the PLA (and team) for all their help, and not least to Pagent Master Adrian Evans and his team including Rosie, Jules, Ben, Maz, Kevin, Tom, Amy, Emile, Di… Alchemy would also like to thank the crew for their tireless work: Paul K and Paul R, Rob, Adam, Rod plus Jason, Daz, Howard, Jim, Ruaridh (with apologies to all the others that made it happen).

PS – Somebody tell Danny Boyle there’s no need to construct artificial clouds… 😉

Here’s the video…