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On paper this has to rate as one of
the best possible assignments that a firework enthusiast
could ever hope to report on. Let's start with the
fireworks. This was going to be a professional display,
so there would be some good pyro. Then there's the
beer. Not just a bar, but a complete brewery.
And a shop where you could buy more beer to take away.
And food. And nice staff. And a toilet on site. Have
I died and gone to heaven?
Ironically, it turned out to be a
case of "Beer, beer, everywhere, and all the
boards did shrink; Beer, Beer, everywhere, nor any
drop to drink". I was driving and Steve and his
crew were firing, so it was down to PeteB to take
on the role of chief drinker on our behalf. I have
never been so close to so much beer without drinking
it.
The stunning setting that is St. Peter's Brewery.
In the country, lush green fields,
wildlife a plenty, a romantic pond too. Er, did we
mention it's also a brewery?
First task when we arrived therefore
was to completely ignore Steve and Gerry and head
for the Brewery Shop. With this key business out of
the way we joined Skyscenes on site to have a look
around. This display was going to be for a private
wedding function and the guests were arriving by mid
afternoon.
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Another view of the Brewery (this is what you
see when you drive in). It's probably a good
job I was drinking coke all afternoon. After
a few bottles of St. Peter's finest brews I
would have probably ended up IN the pond.
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The brewery shop, funnily enough,
had loads of beer! The different coloured labels
show the range of different brews on offer,
ranging from very mild through to very alcoholic.
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Even more beer. Luckily my sports suspension
was able to cope with the extra weight on the
way home. I defy anyone to go into this shop
and not buy any.
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The wedding guests arrive. The
reception was very civilised, with a marquee
and live classical music.
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The normal firing area (a pretty grassy enclave)
had been invaded by a caravan club! So it was
necessary to find an alternative position away
from both the brewery and the caravans. We found
a good spot down this old track.
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This area turned out to be ideal
once we had found someone who could move the
brewery's vans (easier said than done at a weekend
when most of the brewery staff were off!).
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Gerry at work on the candle fans.
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The shell racks out of the van and ready for
a clean up before being secured in a rigid timber
frame.
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Working on hard surfaces is no
problem to a professional team because there
are many ways to secure the fireworks. In this
shot you can see a large amount of timber being
unloaded from the van, this would be used to
make frames and supports.
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My favourite box, the one that was full of
three inch shells. These would make up the bulk
of the aerial action, being fired in sufficient
numbers to make a really good impact.
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Gerry's timber frame can be seen
on the left. Apparently he was always top in
woodwork when he was at school.
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Steve getting the shells fused up. Each line
of shells here is connected by PIC which burns
at around an inch a second. The bigger yellow
fuse is quickmatch which burns very quickly.
The idea here is that the firer will light one
fuse, this will then start the line of shells
firing one every few seconds.
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Steve loading some more shells.
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Aside from the concrete, bricks and rubble
this was a nice site. Just behind us was a wild
area completely full of pretty thistles.
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On with the wellies (which always
causes much amusement, I have no idea why) and
time to scout out a filming area for me. A wide
open venue like this is great because I can
get a good distance from the site.
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Don't ask. I just thought this made a nice
shot. These metal contraptions looked like electric
guitars or triffids coming across the field.
Must have been the fumes from the brewery getting
to me!
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Detail from the side of a brewery
van.
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The brewery contained some very interesting
machinery. This massive metal contraption was
labelled "Cryo Service", so we spent
a few minutes figuring out if we could wire
Gerry up to it. As Gerry's getting on a bit,
we thought if we could cryogenically freeze
him between displays we'd get much more out
of him.
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Warning labels on fireworks are
child's play compared to this baby. After reading
the "Do:" and "Don't:" warnings
on this we decided to move to a safer part of
the Brewery.
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After setting up it was time to enjoy
the ambience of the Brewery. This was helped by a
background sound of classical music and the occasional
smell of hops on the air (and methane from PeteB).
The very nice staff at the brewery started a shuttle
run between the site and the restaurant, keeping us
supplied with refreshments and sandwiches.
It didn't seem like long before the
light started to fade, and the constant swarm of flying
things coming off the fields was replaced instead
by a swarm of even larger flying things - bats! These
were living in the nearby derelict barns, but their
coordination was amazing and they managed to swerve
and avoid hitting us at the last minute every time.
Like our previous report on Langley,
we were going to cover the display from a number of
angles with camcorders and cameras, so we spent a
while planning the best places for these. PeteB took
on the "Ground Zero" role again, getting
kitted up with PPE and taking position in one of the
barns which would provide excellent shelter. I set
up the remote camcorder, switched it to record and
went off into the next field, setting up the stills
camera for the shots shown below.
The surrounding countryside was soon lit up by Skyscenes.
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Pretty purple and blue shells open the show.
I've been very impressed with some of the wonderful
new colours coming out in the last few years,
with gorgeous shades of blue, purple and yellow
to name a few.
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More pretty purple shells with
a cake starting further down. You can see the
advantage here to being several hundred metres
away for still shots - you can get so much more
in the frame.
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Candle fans create green tracers. The effects
were funny sounds created by spinning shells,
these show up as fuzzy silver trails here.
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A nice column of colour and glitter
effects.
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More nice effects here, crowned with bright
green shells high up in the air.
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A good mix of effects including
reports and red rings.
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Reports lower down while above this spectacular
gold willow effects - tipped with blue, which
you can just see in this shot.
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A look at the gold willow to
blue effects on their own.
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This curious shot shows a "flowerpot"
where a shell explodes in the tube rather than
in the air. Despite looking dramatic this does
not pose any risk to the firer or spectators.
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Candle fans created mixed and saturated effects.
Another great display by Skyscenes
who enjoyed much applause and cheers from the guests.
After clearing up it was time to head to the bar so
they could savour a celebratory wind down pint and
more thanks from the clients.
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UK Firework Review. All rights reserved.
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