Wedding Fireworks at St. Peter's Brewery

After a very enjoyable first visit to St. Peter's Brewery it was time to do it all over again for another wedding fireworks display, with the pyro provided of course by Skyscenes. Naturally we were looking forward to the fireworks and seeing the Skyscenes crew again, it never even crossed our minds that we'd also get a second shot at the brewery shop full of lovely ale (liar!).

The difference this time around was much nicer weather. Apart from the tarmac melting and getting stuck on my boots and even bigger swarms of nasty black insects than the previous display, it was a pleasure to enjoy the green Suffolk countryside and the brilliant brewery location.

The restaurant area from the back.

The caravan club who had taken up residence on the normal firing area had also departed, so we were able to set up in a grassy area surrounded by hedges - very picturesque.

- You can click on any thumbnail to view a bigger picture -

The brewery and its pond. The sign should say "Danger: Killer fish" because when we threw some bread in the pond for the ducks, about five million aggressive fish intercepted it (and for a moment we thought they would eat the duck too). Some very odd things lurking in there let me tell you.

Another view of the brewery and the pond. Despite the heat I was not tempted to leap in, and left the piranha-like things to finish off their last meal.

This is the old barn/shed Pete B used as a filming point in the previous St. Peter's feature. Home to lots of bats too.

Better get to work then, Steve unloads the van. The green grass made a nice change from the concrete wasteland of the previous firing site.

Steve gets the racks ready in the background while Gerry gets the candle fans sorted in a timber frame. We managed to get this shot before Gerry decided to strip off in the heat (the subsequent pictures with him in are too graphic to print here but a calendar is available for £9.99+P&P, heheh...).

The shell racks. The same shell racks pictured in every display, you'd think I would have taken enough pictures of them by now.

Steve putting foil over his shells. He's a great cook too!

A 19 shot gold willow cake plus a 49 shot golden palm cake. At the back, candle bundles.

More foil as Steve protects the shell tubes from damp and sparks.

Expertly taped up. Foil is also useful because you can see which ones have or have not fired. Some displayers put a bit of tape over the top too for the same reason.

A view of the action through one of the candle and cake racks.

Steve proudly says "I'm finished" and admires his foil work. Bless him, we tried to give him as much encouragement as we could before we put his straight jacket back on.

The beautiful scene of St. Peter's Brewery at night, reflecting
into the pond. I swear I saw something in there that was eight feet
long and had two heads!

With the setting up complete it was time to play the waiting game again. Having to kill time comes with the territory with pro displays. You have to set up in the light but you cannot display until it is dark. Our waiting was made easier yet again by the brilliant staff who kept us fed and watered, and this helped to alleviate the pain of listening to Gerry's jokes too.

For this display, PeteB was the Ground Zero man again, taking up a position in the corner under a tree, protected by his PPE. The camcorder was left running on autopilot, and I retired to the other side of the brewery and had one of my worst ideas yet, to film from an island in the middle of the pond. No, I did not fall in, but I nearly did, and was bitten in lots of places by some very hungry insects. All this just to try and get some nice reflections in the shots!

The guests assembled at the due time and Steve sent up a single rocket as a signal to me that the display was about to start so I could get the camera ready. The guests cheered at this then had a laugh that the show was over already. Just as the mirth was subsiding BANG!! an opening volley of shells and the show started.

I really liked this effect on the night, green stars to cascading
banana yellow, and it has come out well in the still shots too, looking like
a huge daffodil.

Part of the opening shell salvo, green and blue aerial shells. This display sounded good too, with the noise rumbling around the countryside.

Silver and red stars leave trails and a reflection in the pond. Not quite as spectacular a reflection as I had hoped for but you have to try these things. The lone trail going up is the first shot from a crossette candle.

Lilac crossette effects. This section actually cycled through lots of colours and looked very, very good. A silver effect breaks in the middle of the shot.

A column of effects with the silver continuing lower down while some more purple and green aerial shells explode high above.

Two sets of fanned candles fill the air with green stars and then lots of bangs, reflected on the water below.

This is a noise sequence with the sound effect shells leaving fluffy white trails. Overhead, more silver.

This was another nice sequence, the green and yellow "flowers" (shown in the full sized picture above) are crowned with purple and blue shell effects.

Lots of colours here with purple, red and even green strobe.

This is one of the gold effect cakes, with blue tips.

Just before the end and look at this beautiful combination of
pink and silver - very fitting for a wedding.

As the final barrage of gold willow shells died down, the guests responded with a very enthusiastic cheer. After clearing up, it was time to head to the bar for a well earned night cap, and Skyscenes were thanked by their clients for another stunner.

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