Thorpe Park 2007

Thorpe Park 2007

Thorpe Park Bonfire Night Firework Displays 2007, Chertsey, Surrey

Until November 2007, the Surrey theme park Thorpe Park hadn’t hosted a firework display for several years. Alchemy Fireworks Director Glenn Plume had fired several shows at the attraction park back in the 20th Century, so he was delighted to renew the relationship and focus his soundtrack and show design talents on the 2007 Thorpe Blast. “It was quite a different challenge to the last time I had worked there”, said Glenn, “Thorpe Park has changed and developed so much over the last 10 years that it was like dealing with a completely new venue. The brief was also very different. Thorpe Park is a major attraction and a major brand, and these days people are more sensitive to their relationship with the local community. It was very clear from the start that Thorpe Park has a strong sense of Corporate Social Responsibility, so we worked with them to make sure that we could put on a fireworks display that would be visually stunning and exciting for a thrill-seeking audience, but which would not negatively impact on Chertsey and Surrey, primarily in terms of noise, so quiet fireworks were the order of the day.”

A demonstration of effects was organized, and a decision was made to avoid the use of “bombettes” which can create a lot of noise, and to limit the firing of aerial shells to the prefinalé and finale of the display. Glenn continues “Obviously noise is an integral part of most traditional firework displays, but more and more people are asking us to create quiet firework displays out of consideration to local residents. My main focus as a show designer is to put on a display that the audience will love, so from a display design point of view I have to be clever about the fireworks that I choose, the way I set them up and the way I fire them. For Thorpe Park’s firework displays we used a wide frontage of modular pontoons on the lake, so we instantly created that panoramic feel. Stretching the display horizontally helps compensate for the lack of aerial fireworks, especially when you see the visual effect doubled by the reflections in the water, and we also used some brand new aqua fireworks which actually burst on the surface of the water. Alchemy also worked closely with Thorpe Park to design a soundtrack for the fireworks that would appeal to their visitors and was high energy, and brought in JAP Sound to run the PA. “JAP did a great job of linking in with Thorpe’s internal Park PA, as well distributing the sound evenly over the viewing area and – crucially – making sure that the additional sound wouldn’t travel beyond the Park’s boundaries.”

“All 3 nights couldn’t have gone any better!” Laura Sinclair, Entertainments Manger, Thorpe Park

Download this Alchemy Fireworks Case Study as a PDF

Alchemy Fireworks useful links: Thorpe Park