Blog Posts

RHS Hampton Court Gala Preview Fireworks 2018

This was our 7th consecutive year of producing the fireworks display for this prestigious event. There was a change of direction in terms of the music this year. The previous few years had been designed to music of a classical/movie score theme but this year saw us Celebrating Women with 2018 being 100 years since women were allowed to vote. The display was expertly choreographed to an all-female mix including Whitney Houston and Adele and the display wowed the guests. The feedback from the client?

“The display was fantastic as always and we have heard lots of great feedback, including lots of photos that we have seen people sharing on twitter. It was a pleasure to work with you and of course thank you for letting me press the button for the test!”

Official partner of The Wedding Gallery

 

 

We are thrilled to announce that we are official partners to an exciting new venture called The Wedding Gallery.

We are one of the 200+ unique brands partnering with The World’s first luxury wedding retail, planning and inspiration venue @theweddinggalleryofficial // opening this Autumn #TWG

Sizzling Summer Shows

The past few weeks have been very busy here at Alchemy. We’ve been providing many wedding fireworks displays up and down the country, firing displays on the Thames (twice!!), producing another jaw dropping fireworks display for the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show Gala Preview Evening and just last Saturday producing a masterpiece fired to classical music at the Leeds Castle Classical Concert. Here are a few of images of our recent adventures;

Wedding vows and wedding WOWS!

Alchemy Fireworks provide many wedding fireworks displays throughout the summer. More and more often we get asked for quiet wedding fireworks displays at noise sensitive venues – usually because of nearby neighbours or livestock. When cleverly choreographed to music a quiet fireworks display can be equally as impressive as it’s noisier counterpart! We have a dedicated wedding fireworks website at www.alchemyweddingfireworks.co.uk . It contains lots of useful information that you need to consider when planning to have a fireworks display at your wedding as well as information on the packages and prices that we offer.

Wedding displays are usually much more personal than large public events. We’ll meet the bride and groom fairly early on and guide them through the process from putting the music together for their display, taking on board any ideas they have for the show or effects that they want to see, right through to firing their display on their big day and seeing their reactions. Here is just some feedback that we’ve recently received;

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Below are just three of the wedding fireworks displays that we have recently provided. The first one for Emily and Fazz used quiet and noisy fireworks but the last two videos were quiet fireworks displays choreographed to music. I’m sure you’ll find that they are equally as impressive as a full on display!

  • Amazing red and silver Fireworks at Leeds Castle classical concert
  • Big Fireworks display exploding over the stage at Leeds Castle concert
  • Pink and gold fireworks exploding in the sky for a classical concert
  • Fireworks being fired to the 1812 Overture at Leeds Castle classical concert
  • The stage, video screens and fireworks for a classical concert
  • View across a large firework shell set-up at Leeds Castle classical concert

Concert at the Castle

Saturday saw Alchemy Fireworks produce 3 magnificent displays to 3 separate pieces of music at the Leeds Castle Classical Concert. This iconic event was held in the most spectacular location and natural amphitheater in front of the beautiful Leeds Castle. The concert not only featured so many popular classics, that audiences have come to associate with the event, but the audience also enjoyed the addition of some of John Williams’ most iconic film themes.

We also had a new host, Aled Jones MBE, who presented this magnificent and memorable concert, the highlight of the Kent event calendar.

The concert celebrated its 38th year with a wonderful programme of music and entertainment from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by John Rigby. Also performing were, The Definitive Rat Pack; the world’s finest interpreters of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.  Soloists Frances McCafferty and Anthony Flaum and the P&O Ferries Choir also be returned to the stage.  This fantastic night of patriotic flag-waving finished with a spectacular firework finale by Alchemy Fireworks. Firing to live music has its challenges – nothing can be pre-programmed because an orchestra can play the pieces at slightly different speeds to recorded versions. So it’s a case of knowing the music, and the performance of the fireworks, off by heart. Needless to say, we bought a little Alchemy magic to the event and the fireworks were met with rapturous applause and cheers!

Flower Power!

Monday took us to Hampton Court for the RHS Flower Show Gala Preview evening. Our 7th year of firing the display and it was a return to a purely classical mix of music combined with a very closely choreographed show and lighting and projections from STL Production Group. You can read more about this display here.

Funk Soul Brother!

We were delighted to be a part of the Summer Soulstice festival’s 10th anniversary this year. Choreographed to a bespoke mix of music provided by the client the 4500 strong crowd were treated to a closely choreographed display featuring tracks from The Jacksons and Prince.

History repeating……

Big burst of multi coloured fireworks

In Britain, we associate fireworks with Bonfire Night, in France they’re used to celebrate Bastille Day and we all know how much Americans love fireworks to celebrate every occasion, but have you ever wondered how the first firework was created? We all enjoy a good fireworks display; it’s one of the few things in today’s modern world that still has the power to bring us together as a community. Despite most of us thinking that fireworks were invented to celebrate Bonfire Night, their history goes back thousands of years and is far more exciting than you can imagine!

A happy accident

The first mention of a firework comes from China, about 2000 years ago. There’s a legend that a Chinese chef accidentally knocked some saltpetre into a cooking fire, which caused an interesting flame not seen anywhere else, and in an act of pure serendipity, invented the firework. Saltpetre was used as a flavouring salt and is still an ingredient in gun powder. Along with saltpetre, other gunpowder ingredients, such as sulphur and charcoal were commonly found around ancient cooking fires. This mixture of ingredients produced an extremely beautiful flame in a fire and would explode if placed into a bamboo tube.

Between 960 and 1279, in the Song Dynasty in China, exploding firecrackers were produced by Li Tian, a Chinese monk, near the city of Liu Yang in the Hunan Province. They were designed to be detonated at the beginning of the New Year in order to scare away evil spirits, and were made by filling bamboo shoots with gunpowder.

Nowadays we focus on the shapes and colours of being the most important part of a firework, but in medieval China, they focused on the loud noise for early religious fireworks (known as ‘bian pow’ or ‘gung pow’), as this was essential for scaring away the evil spirits.

By the time of the 15th century, fireworks are recorded being used in a wide range of celebrations, including weddings and military victories. Whilst we see the birth of the firework in China, the modern firework that’s we recognise was most likely invented in India or the Middle East.

Gunpowder

Gunpowder, also known as black powder, is one of the most important discoveries in human history, changing everything from war to infrastructure. Whilst it can be used as an explosive, it’s far more commonly used as a propellant. Since the 9th Century it was made by mixing saltpetre, sulphur and charcoal; the charcoal often came from the willow tree, but a number of other woods have been used, including:

  • Pine cones
  • Elder
  • Grapevine
  • Laurel
  • Hazel

More recently, sugar has been used as an alternative to charcoal to act as the fuel component in fireworks and other pyrotechnics.

When these ingredients are carefully ground together, a powder called ‘serpentine’ is created. Due to these ingredients needing to be mixed before they’re used, gunpowder was extremely dangerous to make without modern safety measures.

Chinese arrows

As well as using gunpowder as an explosive in their firecrackers, the Chinese utilised gunpowder combustion as a propellant. In 1279, the Chinese used hand-carved wooden rockets, in the shape of dragons, to shoot rocket powered arrows at the Mongol invaders.

Explorers of the time took their knowledge of gunpowder and rocket powered arrows back home with them, with records in the Middle East talking of Chinese arrows as far back as the 7th century.

Along with the crusaders, Marco Polo is widely credited with bringing gunpowder (and fireworks) to Europe in the 13th century.

Newspaper cutting of an historical royal fireworks display on the River Thames in London

Fireworks in Europe

By 1377, fireworks we being used in the bishop’s palace at Vicenza to accompany a religious mystery play. Soon, fireworks were regularly used in the representation of angels or the Holy Spirit, as a way to demonstrate them ascending to Heaven or descending to earth.

A couple of centuries later, the popularity of fireworks had increased exponentially and they were commonly used for both military purposes and in peacetime. Spain and Italy in particular started using firework displays as part of numerous outdoor celebrations. Vannoccio Biringuccio, an Italian metallurgist described the festivities in Florence and Siena for feast days as including whirling, decorated wheels that had been packed with fireworks suspended from ropes as entertainment.

A cause for celebration

Historical black and white picture of a fireworks display

Over time, fireworks were used more often to celebrate great events. From the late part of the 15th century (and even to this day), fireworks at Italy’s Castel Sant’Angelo have been used to celebrate the election of a new pope. Descriptions of the fireworks in the late 15th century stated that the finale of rocket fireworks “Constructed so that after they have moved upwards with a long tail and seem to be finished they burst and each one sends forth anew six or eight rockets”. It was definitely a world changing experience for those who saw it, with the fireworks being compared to the fires of hell or the heavens coming down to earth.

Moving into the 16th century, fireworks were being used for festivals throughout northern Europe with a large variety in the styles of firework display. They were mainly spectacles designed for the nobility and royalty, celebrating their actions and adventure, using elaborate scenery with monsters, castles and a wide range of pyrotechnics.

The coronation of Anne Boleyn in 1533 was celebrated with a “great red dragon continually moving and casting forth fire” and a host of “wild men” on barges in the Thames, wielding fire-clubs. Her daughter, Elizabeth I greatly enjoyed firework displays throughout her reign.

In Germany, fireworks were used to create pyrotechnic pantomimes, with giant dragons and fire-spouting whales engaged in mock battles. In France, however, they enjoyed fireworks that resembled stars and the sun, lions to represent the constellation Leo and many other astrological inspired displays.

These magnificent firework displays could cost a fortune to create and were a source of both marvel and terror- for many people firework displays remained a novel experience.

Modern firework displays

The 1800s saw an end to the kind of courtly politics and extravagant displays due to more of a focus on economising pyrotechnic displays, leading to simple displays of coloured light in the 20th century. Today, however, we see fireworks fairly regularly often, so it takes a lot to impress us. Fireworks set to music, designed to create letters, numbers and shapes, as well as lancework and firerope.

At Alchemy Fireworks, our experienced team of pyrotechnic technicians will work with you to ensure you have everything you need for an exceptional firework display. To find out how Alchemy Fireworks can take your display into the next age, call us today on +44 (0)8000 66 58 37 or contact us online.