Southport British Musical Fireworks Championships 2014

WHERE: VICTORIA PARK – SOUTHPORT
WHEN: 3rd TO 6TH OCTOBER 2014

Saturday 10th October 2014 saw three more companies battling it out in the skies over Southport as they entertained the tens of thousands gathered for the British Musical Fireworks Championships.

First up to fire were SmArt Pyrotechnics: Starting with the sounds of Michael Buble will always do it for me, but I have to say this is on another level to the displays enjoyed on Friday. Incredible, symmetrical (yeah baby) and an absolutely beautiful selection of effects, colours and the timing was absolutely spot on. On the change of pace, we moved onto the haunting strains of Enya and the display was utterly hypnotic with some wonderful lancework and the criss cross on the ground work was nothing short of amazing you could actually hear the explosion on the musical beat. Outstanding…. Crackling comet tails, sweeping fans of gold and green – the crowds clearly agreed as they burst into rapturous applause at the change of music.

A beautiful mixture of colour which lit up the whole of the firing area and the hearts and pinks for the Etta James section were amazing and the titanium flashes just added to the drama.

The finale was packed to the rafters with some staggeringly big shells and the daisy shells were especially lovely and the final burst of HUGE willow shells was utterly breathtaking – well done team SmArt!!

SMArt Pyrotechnics - Southport British Musical Fireworks Championship Winner from Pyro Productions on Vimeo.

Second to fire, Classic Fireworks stuck with a very British Theme with rousing music selections from the outset as the night filled with the sounds of the 633 Squadron theme tune followed by Zadok the Priest from the Handel.

There were some lovely bright purples which were gorgeous with some intricate firing in the midst of the display. The Sailors Hornpipe played whilst the team threw as much into the air as possible but some of the colour changing comets were beautiful but little symmetry. The sweeping fans were lovely and they finished off the display with crowd pleaser, Land of Hope and Glory which was accompanied by some absolutely beautiful shell work.

Last but not least, Gala Fireworks. The theme was a hark back to the 70’s & 80’s with sledgehammer, jitterbug boogie, another brick in the wall and the theme of the 80’s The Old Grey Whistle Test.

Gala Fireworks - Southport British Musical Fireworks Championship 2nd Place from Pyro Productions on Vimeo.

They started out as they meant to go on with some lovely tailed comets and some brilliant colour variations. There were some very loud parts and again plenty going up into the sky. Outstanding for me were the giant tipped crackling palm shell – the bronze to green change was lovely – the silver fish and pearls into crossettes and spiralling tails and ring shells.

The display was well paced and had a really good finale with lots of glitter and hearts but lovely.

All players, well done but in my opinion, at the end of Saturday I definitely had SmArt Pyrotechnics in front.