Margate Big Event 2008

Margate Big Event 2008

Margate Big Event Fireworks 2008, Thanet, Kent

Kent’s biggest Air Festival has a history of pulling in big crowds. The 2008 edition of the Big Event – a free festival of land and air organised by Thanet District Council – saw good weather, and over 65,000 spectators turned out to enjoy land and aerial action such as wing-walking by Team Guinot, the Royal Navy’s Black Cat helicopters and the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. The entertainment carried on after dark with live Motown music on-stage, and we were there to put the icing on the cake of Saturday night’s tribute concert with a spectacular fireworks display over Margate’s Palm Bay.

We worked closely with the Council and re-positioned the launch site for the fireworks display to put the fireworks in the same field of vision as the main stage, rather than twisting the audience through 90 degrees. We created a split-site approach, firing smaller material from the upper promenade behind the stage, whilst aerial fireworks were launched from the lower promenade, some 50’ below at the base of the chalky Kent cliffs. These aerial fireworks were safely angled out to sea, but the shells bursting 50’ lower than normal made for a really high impact display for the clifftop audience, which was perfectly positioned to frame the stage.

We also took advantage of keeping the audience close to the stage – and within earshot of the PA system – to choreograph the fireworks display to music, featuring tracks by artists who had been covered in the preceding tribute concert. To choreograph the fireworks to music was a first for this event, and both our client and the audience were delighted with the display.

“…thank you and all of the team at Alchemy for a fantastic display which was so well received by the crowd…” Gill Shepherd, Public Affairs Manager, Thanet District Council