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St. Peter's Brewery is our favourite
fireworks venue of all time. Lots of room to set up
the pyro, great staff who look after us and surrounded
by the beautiful Suffolk countryside. Oh, and a huge
brewery too, complete with a shop selling the region's
finest ales by the box. Hic! Our car always goes back
a lot heavier than when it arrived.
Great venue. Pretty setting.
Firework-hardened ducks.
The previous two outings here have
been with Skyscenes Pyrotechnics. This time, the wedding
fireworks display was provided by Fully Fused Fireworks
who acquired Skyscenes - but the old Skyscenes crew
were still here to help with the show. So it was nice
to meet up with Steve and Gerry again and to see how
Jim from Fully Fused would do things.
- Click on
any bottle top to view a bigger picture -
1:
Row upon row of fine ale in
the Brewery Shop 2:
A brewery tour and beer tasting for £4 - bargain
- but not for the sober display team! 3:
Outdoor reception venue 4:
Part of the finale (joke!) 5:
What sort of ground maroon could we make with the
half tonne of Ammonium Nitrate we found on the other
side of the venue? 6: Unpacking
the van 7: Pyro
in boxes 8: Assorted
shell racks
After checking out the brewery shop
- always our first port of call - it was time to scout
out the venue. They'd be firing from the same location
as the St. Peter 1 feature - right over in the back
corner but the right side of the reception area so
the guests simply had to stagger out and the show
would be in front of them.
On the opposite side of the brewery
there were too many obstacles including power lines,
gas cylinders and half a tonne of Ammonium Nitrate!
So although the setting up area was dusty and strewn
with old abandoned machinery, it was by far the safest
place to set up.
Nice curves! The car isn't bad
either.
Weddings are great displays to do
because you get a real sense that you're contributing
to someone's special day. This wedding party were
celebrating in style with a flash car and a live band.
1:
Unloading a display can take
time 2: Setting
up the tube for the eight inch finale shell 3:
Candles in racks 4:
Assorted shells in a box 5:
More shells 6: Close-up
of a three inch shell 7:
Close-up of a five inch shell 8:
Brocade Silver
As you can see from the pictures there were a number
of big shells, right up to eight inches - it was
clear the bride and groom were going to get a very
good send off! Supporting these were cakes and candle
bundles. The van was soon unloaded and the crew
got to work constructing shell racks and frames
to hold the candles - the ground was solid concrete.
View over some big shells.
This was going to be a hand-fired display, and
these are always the most interesting to cover.
We decided to employ our new wireless helmet cam
for this display which would hopefully pick up the
mayhem of being up close and personal to professional
fireworks. This would transmit its signal back to
the recorder in my car which I parked in an unused
barn a little further back. A spare camcorder was
set up quite close to the fireworks themselves to
try and capture a wider view of the danger zone.
1:
Five inch shells ready and
waiting 2: View
across the shell racks 3:
Loading the eight inch shell - steady
as she goes 4:
Laying out the smaller shells 5:
View across another rack 6:
Fuse at the ready 7:
Candle barrages in racks 8:
Cakes
Thanks to kind weather and nice staff keeping us
fed and watered, setting up was very enjoyable despite
a zillion strange looking insects sweeping in off
the field - although these were later mopped up
by a zillion bats!
Final setting up by torchlight
after dusk.
After dark we finalised the camera positions with
the crew and myself and Pete B retired a long way
back down an adjacent field for the main video and
camera shots.
The distant rumble of the disco and occasional
rowdy banter came to a temporary stop - the time
had come for the display. Silence descended on the
Brewery and then the show started with a bang...
- Click on any bottle
top to view a bigger picture -
You can see the full display in our main video
clip which was filmed from three positions and includes
some nice close-up footage from the firer's helmet:
What a fantastic display as you can see from the
pictures above. It was a very effective mix of big
shells and smaller bore action from cakes and candles.
Well done to the Fully Fused team who deserved the
congratulations given by the bride and groom afterwards.
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