Sheffield 2008

Sheffield 2008

After Dark Bonfire Night Fireworks Display 2008, Sheffield, South Yorkshire

I know we says this about all our shows, but we really love the Sheffield After Dark fireworks display. Seriously. Maybe I’ll get a badge made to that effect. From a fireworks perspective it just gets better every year. Although I’m sure Event Organiser Scott Barton from the Sheffield Events Company will tell you that the 2008 After Dark fireworks display was hard work, seeing as he had to pretty much carpet the entire Don Valley Bowl in hay to stop it turning into a mudbath… Nevertheless, a delighted young competition winner used our wireless firing system to light the bonfire (which needed plenty of combustible “help” to get going), and an hour later I was standing stage-side ready to cue Yorkshire’s biggest and best Bonfire Night fireworks display.

Soundtrack selection is always a big feature of the display, and as we love designing fireworks to music that might explain why we enjoy it so much. The 2008 soundtrack featured some classic firework tracks: Bjork’s “Oh so quiet”, and Coldplay’s “Fix You”, as well as the now essential presence of Richard Hawley (gotta have that Sheffiled musical connection somewhere in the display) in the form of his collaboration with Mercury Music Winners Elbow on “The Fix”. Franz Ferdinand and The Futureheads added some punchiness early on and we closed with Take That’s “Rule the World” (which I think must have been written with fireworks displays in mind – it’s perfect for choreography). And although it wasn’t in the style of Sheffield’s rock music tradition, it’s the ultimate feelgood track to lift everyone’s spirits on a cold damp winter’s evening when the rest of the world seems to be taking a turn for the worse. Judging by the cheers at the end of the display it certainly did the trick at the Don Valley Bowl. You can be pretty sure you’ve fired a great show when the most experienced pyrotechnicians on the crew are already asking you how you can top that next year… but I know we will, and even now a few ideas are forming… see you there!

“Marvelous!” Scott Barton, Managing Director, Sheffield Events Company

Alchemy Fireworks useful links: Sheffield Event Co.