After the competition displays it was time to sit back
and enjoy the closing display from MLE Pyrotechnics. Starting
with an opening sequence of moody music and strobes along
the water's edge, the action built gradually with eruptions
of bright silver, then yellow, then crackles and then the
first bangs of the display creating crackling and blue (pictured
above).
Comets followed from ground level and the first big shell
launches from the area to the rear of the display dwarfing
the trees at the back. A fantastic mix of effects followed
using just about every colour and at every height, with
waves of crackling. The unmistakable deep thud of big shell
launches could be felt as massive comet tailed shells took
off, filling the sky above with coloured peonies.
A quieter interlude now with an interesting gold effect.
Gold comets took off, leaving a trail from ground level.
Not only where the trails persistent, but each comet arced
over, creating beautiful curved columns of gold. At the
base, red stars added colour. This was a really special
effect.
- Click on any picture to enlarge it -
This quieter section passed with the launch of some more
big shells, then MLE layered the effects over the gold as
you will see from the picture below to create not only colours
but textures too.
A synchronised sequence of coloured bursts created what
looked like multicolour flowers with blues, greens, reds
and purples. Then, a barrage of coordinated big shells exploding
into deep blue with silver comets in the middle (pictured
below).
A change of music now and a rapid fire sequence of various
colours and effects again mixing in just about everything
except the kitchen sink (although I would not have been
surprised to see that too!). Waves of crackles erupted over
columns of coloured stars, before crossette effects then
a huge wave of bright comets lit up the whole firing area,
this was repeated shortly after while the crossettes and
fish continued above.
A slight lull was just the calm before the storm as a barrage
of massive shells blasted upwards and broke to silver, gold
and crackling effects. Back on the ground, a change of music
and three columns of coloured crossettes thrilled with various
colours. Two huge shells picked up the pace again then lower
down a barrage of red and crackling. On the ground was a
very pretty sequence of red-tipped silver comets and crackling
fired at various angles, leading then to crackling crossettes.
Up above, one of the most impressive shells on the night
exploded into trailing comets each tipped with red, it almost
seemed to hang in the air in slow motion. Stunning. But
it didn't stop there, further barrages followed then a triple
blast of three special effect shells, bright rings of colour
expanding outwards with glitter on either side. Back on
the ground a manic section of screeching serpents and plenty
of bangs led to a section of bright strobing green then
sequences of mines each creating columns of bright colour.
Following this was an interesting twist on the crossette
effect, these were like crossettes with attitude, trailing
off in all directions to leave trails of colour right across
the display area. Fanned colour and noise followed this
before screeching serpents returned, streaming upwards to
meet another barrage of effects.
Various huge shells continued the onslaught, before a change
of music again back to classical. The final section of the
screeching cakes subsided and after a few huge eruptions
of crackling gold, a single shell blasted upwards and erupted
into green stars. The action switched now to ground level
with the moody Carmina Burana playing while red flares created
and illuminated smoke. As the music built, angled fans of
silver then colour, and then fish added to the action, followed
by screeching.
Then, the gates of hell seemed to open for the finale sequence
which was a barrage of almost overwhelming effects, quite
honestly you have to download the video clips to even half
appreciate the impact. Wave after wave of colour, noise
and big bore shells in a massive column of fire.
The final barrage was a fitting end to the night, gold
effects which criss-crossed each other in the sky and created
a hanging canopy of crackling gold glitter.
"The show was designed by Trevor Golding, one of our
senior pyrotechnicians" explained Mat Lawrence of MLE
Pyrotechnics. "We used a variety of material, all MLE
Professional Series branded, some Spanish, Italian cylinder,
Chinese spherical and Japanese spherical shells. The final
hit included 3 x 150mm shells - Crackling Nishiki Kamuro
(Japanese) and Brocade Crossette (Chinese). We used one
of our MLE Fire-By-Wire 256 channel systems, it was manually
fired using 112 cues in total and 376 ignitors".
Stunning, well done Mat and your team for a brilliant end
to a brilliant event.
