Last year's winning team Sky Matrix fired next, the only
team consisting of just one person! Starting with a sequence
of screeches and bangs very similar to Sky Monkeys, we then
saw the only wheels of the night, a welcome and traditional
interlude which from the audience's viewpoint should have
reflected nicely off the water in front. Building up the
tempo next followed brilliant lilac stars breaking to various
coloured effects and a pokey bang (shown above), running
then into some serious screeching effects. The pace then
suddenly slowed to an audience favourite, coloured fish,
before more screeching effects raised the sound level back
up again and a kaleidoscope of coloured stars caught the
eye from ground level.
- Click on any picture to enlarge it -
The next sequence was green stars breaking to silver glitter
and accompanied by crackling, before additional coloured
effects slightly higher combined to create a busy column
of just about every effect, given extra height by a salvo
or two of rockets. Then a big bore candle sequence cleverly
mixed both silver comet shells with bombettes. Brilliant
red twinkling glitter then changed the colour completely,
changing then to green and silver strobe.
A complete change from this to blue stars breaking into
big spheres of crackling silver while the blue star then
shot off in various directions. A rocket salvo took off
to the side of this and added some wonderful greens and
purples and reds (see picture below).
Gold comets to green and gold next for a while before the
whole display area lit up in front of a fan of brilliant
magnesium flares, splitting at their peak into dozens of
bright comets. This effect was truly professional and continued
for several waves, bolstered by some very big bangs from
another firework below.
Not content with "just" this, colour was added
to the bottom of this column of silver, and screeching effects
added to the noise. Leading then into the finale section
and a concentrated barrage of colour and noise supported
by a few final rocket salvos. A few effects ran over, but
a brilliant finale and the crowd gave warm applause.
Another superb showcase for firework enthusiasts all the
more impressive being fired by a single person.
