Gibraltar Straits Games 2007

Gibraltar Straits Games 2007

Straits Games Fireworks Display 2007, Gibraltar

At short notice, Alchemy Fireworks were asked to create a spectacular firework display for the Closing Ceremony of the tenth Straits Games (Juegos del Estrecho) in Gibraltar. Thankfully, Alchemy’s Directors have lots of experience of working abroad, and have produced firework displays for festivals in France, competitions in Spain, and private parties in Sweden, Russia and the Maldives, and our team quickly kicked into action.

The display had to be safe to fire from a small firing position sandwiched between new artificial playing surfaces at the Victoria Stadium and the runway for Gibraltar Airport. It was already too late to organize the necessary permissions to ship the fireworks from the UK, so we visited our suppliers in Spain to choose suitable material, design the show and arrange the logistics. Spanish-speaker Rob Farrow led the operation: “It was important to go and visit our supplier because the fireworks had to be just so.

The firing site was close to new artificial playing surfaces so we had to be 100% confident that nothing would come down hot, although we did take extra precautions just to be sure. We organized the sprinklers to be switched on to damp down the pitches and built a compound around the firing site to contain any sparks from the launch site.” Added to this, the Gibraltar International Airport runway was only a short distance behind the firing site.

“The proximity to the Airport was an important issue for everybody involved in the production of the event, so we made sure we had time to sit down with the Air Traffic Control team and talk through exactly what was going to happen and when. They had a flight arriving from Madrid 15 minutes after the end of the display, so we had to be sure that the fireworks display would leave no debris on the runway that could get sucked up into the engines and potentially cause a problem. When we called after to advise them that everything had been fired they congratulated us on an impressive display – they had a great view of it from the top of the ATC Tower!”
“A rather belated note of thanks for another magnificent job! Your organisational skills to get the material through the border and your liaison with the City Fire Brigade and Air Traffic Control is an important factor to us being awarded the tender. Alchemy Fireworks delivered the goods in style!” Odette Benatar, Director, Film Exhibitors Ltd.

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