Fantastic Fireworks

Fireworks is a dirty business and we intend to clean it up!

Editor — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:11:09 +0000

Have you ever seen the aftermath of a fireworks display? Chances are that if it’s a Fantastic Fireworks display you wouldn’t notice anything at all. That’s because as the leading UK and London firework display company our teams make sure their firing sites are as tidy as when they found them. All those explosions inevitably create a lot of mess, including fragments of paper, card and the foil we use to waterproof our displays. In the minutes following a display the firing site always looks rather like a wasteland, until our team get to work with brooms, brushes and sacks! But there is only so much we can do in darkness, even with the help of headlights and torches, so we also offer our venues a ‘next day’ clear-up. With historic houses like Kensington Palace, Hampton Court, Blenheim Palace and Warwick Castle open to the public 7 days a week it’s important to look your best at all times. Our nominated ‘next day’ cleaner will arrive as early as 7am in order to ensure the grounds look spick and span for a 9am opening. It’s one of the many services we offer as part of our policy of setting the highest professional standards. If you would like to know more about Fantastic Fireworks displays, please contact us on 01582 48555 or email info@fantasticfireworks.co.uk

We proudly present The Artist (Part 2)

Editor — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 22:29:21 +0000

Listening to those Honda ads in which the creative team are holed away somewhere and allowed to doodle ideas has inspired us to do the same. The Fantastic Fireworks display team were taken off to Barcelona, the city that inspired such figures as Picasso, Miro and Dali, and asked to come up with, well, something a bit different. The result is the video you can see here. Taking its cue from the hit film of the year, The Artist, our silent movie was written and performed entirely by members of the Fantastic Fireworks display team. Their brief was to demonstrate our ability in the field of creating firework messages in a humorous way. So now, whether you want to say Congratulations, Happy Birthday or Will You Marry Me? this video shows how well we can do it, even if the outcome is not quite what you were expecting.

After a summer of fireworks stand by for the Prophets of Boom!

Editor — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:37:12 +0000

Diamond Jubilee fireworks, Olympic fireworks, festival fireworks, regatta fireworks, wedding fireworks, even End of the World party fireworks! Wherever you are in the coming months you’ll never be far from a fireworks display. As the leading UK and London fireworks display company and fireworks display organiser we have thousands of fireworks to choose from for any occasion. Our red, white and blue-themed display packages for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee are certain to make June our busiest month of the summer. We have already held a dry run, for a client who wanted his display choreographed to one of Handel’s Coronation Anthems, the beautiful and uplifting Zadok the Priest You can watch the video here. After the excitement of the Jubilee and the Olympics, it won’t be long before it’s Guy Fawkes night again. Then it’s the turn of of the prophets of doom, or should that be boom? If predictions of the End of the World are right, December might go out with a bang even before New Year’s Eve! If you’re planning a Diamond Jubilee fireworks celebration, an Olympics fireworks party or an End of the World fireworks party, please call us on 0845 272 3550 or email info@fantasticfireworks.co.uk and tell us your ideas. We’d be delighted to help you make them become a reality.

All fired up for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee

Editor — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:08:22 +0000

Fireworks display companies will be lighting up villages, towns and cities across the land in honour of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in June. As one of the leading London and UK fireworks display organisers Fantastic Fireworks has created a brilliant range of patriotic, red, white and blue themed, professionally organised fireworks displays to celebrate this historic occasion. These vary in price from £2000 to £5000. As an optional extra our Jubilee fireworks displays can be choreographed to a custom-made music soundtrack celebrating the monarch’s 60 years on the throne. Also available as an optional extra is a glittering fireworks tableau reading ER 1952-2012. All this is backed by our new industry-leading insurance cover of £20 million. If you would like further information on Diamond Jubilee Fireworks displays please email info@fantasticfireworks.co.uk or call 01582 485555.

Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Fireworks

Editor — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 06:52:14 +0000

Fantastic Fireworks is offering a range of star-studded fireworks displays to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee this June. These brilliant, professionally organised firework displays come with a patriotic red, white and blue theme and range in price from from £2000 + VAT for a 10-minute display to £5,000 + VAT for 20 minutes. They can be choreographed to a custom-made music soundtrack honouring the monarch’s 60 years on the throne. As another optional extra we can also offer a glittering fireworks tableau reading ER 1952-2012. If you would like further information on these displays please email info@fantasticfireworks.co.uk or call 01582 485555.

A twinkle in the eye of an old firework favourite

Editor — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 23:56:06 +0000

Our annual visit to Liu Yang City, the self-proclaimed firework capital of the world, produced many new and exciting new effects which we will be putting into our shows next year. Sometimes it’s not a completely new one which catches your eye but an old favourite which has been tweaked. A firework shaped like a smiley face always raises a ripple of amusement from our audiences. This year the Chinese have gone one better and given it a pair of eyes which blink! This is sure to become a popular addition to our pyro portfolio in 2012.

While Nanchang, which is home to Lidu Fireworks, one of China’s leading manufacturers, is a very basic city (there is little heating and everyone wears overcoats, even indoors), Liu Yang, which is about a 4-hour drive away, is more Western. It’s just as manic and crazy as everywhere else but more prosperous. There are plenty of Mercs and BMWs and the hotels are plusher with menus which include oysters and lobster. For the more adventurous there are boiled duck heads. These are not everyone’s taste (too much skin and bone and not enough meat) but with a regular throughput of Euroepan and American buyers, the food is very much geared up to Western tastes. Having seen 8 demonstrations in 10 days we have returned home all fired up to make 2012 the most exciting year yet for Fantastic Fireworks. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Safety is no accident

Editor — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 22:18:53 +0000

It has been another thrill-packed fireworks season. November 5th has been and gone and as the last of the Christmas Lights pyrotechnics fade away UK fireworks companies can be proud of staging so many safe and spectacular displays. As the leading fireworks training company our safety record is exemplary. Our fireworks training program enabled us to call on the services of more than 200 freelance pyrotechnicians to fire more than 150 displays over the busy November season. Every year we hold a series of courses aimed at both amateurs and professionals. Amateur pyrotechnicians from schools, scout groups, communities and councils attend our one-day Category 3 training course, learning the basics of organising, setting up and firing fireworks intended for domestic use. Our large pool of professional Pyrotechnicians is drawn from all walks of life and includes lawyers, architects, the clergy, teachers, radio presenters, landscape gardeners and IT consultants – the one thing they have in common is a passion for Pyro! Our Category 4 fireworks training program focuses on professional use fireworks. This involves two days in our purpose-built classroom with some practical elements outside, plus an interview and examination paper. Further training follows on site at our professional displays including being assessed by senior staff, before our pyrotechnicians are finally awarded their ‘wings’. It is a testimony to our training program producing such high quality pyrotechnicians, that longstanding clients such as Dudley Council, whose flagship display at Himley Hall is among the biggest in the country, immediately re-book their show. ‘I cannot let the week go by without thanking Fantastic Fireworks for such a colossal and superb display,’ wrote their Estates Manager Sally Newell. ‘The crowd was in awe, the applause amazing and my VIP guests were in raptures.’ Full details of our 2012 firework training courses can be found at this link.

Hayley, the Girl Fawkes among the Guys!

Editor — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 20:05:23 +0000

With more than 150 displays coming up in the next two weeks, the Fantastic Fireworks teams are all fired up for the premier date of the year. Pyrotechnicians are predominantly male but ranking high among our pool of more than 200 is one of the few females in the business. Hayley Maddin has enjoyed a meteoric rise since arriving three years ago to run our mail order division. During that time she has progressed to become head of our display department. Hayley, pictured here, is only 27 and she has displayed such determination that she has already reached her goal of becoming a fully fledged senior pyrotechnician (but not before enduring sub-zero temperatures during one the coldest displays of the year!). Hayley’s achievement has been recognised by her peers in the industry with the news that she has been shortlisted in the category Employee of the Year at the prestigious Event Production Awards ceremony next year. There is also recognition for Fantastic Fireworks who have been shortlisted in the Special Effetcts category.

Our latest video: Celebrating 400 Years of Hatfield House

Editor — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 16:24:10 +0000

Our biggest fireworks display of 2011, commissioned by Lord Salisbury to celebrate the 400th anniversary of one of the country’s foremost historic houses. As the leading UK fireworks display company and professional fireworks display organiser Fantastic Fireworks were proud and privileged to be selected for this unique occasion. We teamed up with lighting and laser company CMT to create a stunning spectacle. The 25-minute display was choreographed to a live performance of Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks played by The 16 Ensemble. The house’s south front was lit by colourful moving lights while fireworks erupted from the rear, the roof and the formal gardens at the front. Handel’s famous work was composed at a time (1749) when firework technology had only developed as far as pretty fountains, roman candles and revolving wheels, gold being the predominant colour. There no towering aerial starbursts. Some 250 years later our fireworks display designer Ian Woodroof was able to call on the full pallette of pyrotechnology to create a colourful yet sympathetic treatment. Keeping back high aerial starbursts for only the loudest passages, Ian used every nook and cranny of the roof and gardens to create some beautifully artistic effects, including a 100ft waterfall hung between two chimney stacks. Other effects included rows of fountains sparkling along the roof edge and around the central clock tower, lifts of red, green and gold starbursts from the back of the house and lattices of pretty roman candles and mines fans in the front garden. The display comprised more than 14,000 individual effects which took two days to rig and required a crane to hoist many on to the roof. Once set out, the fireworks were wired into a computerised firing system and ignited on the call of one of our musically skilled pyrotechnicians who was reading the score alongside the conductor. Fantastic Fireworks once again demonstrated its ability to perform at the highest level of professional excellence.

Raising the roof at Hatfield House

Editor — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 19:57:31 +0000

Our biggest fireworks display of the year, and the longest if not the biggest in the country since London New Year’s Eve, lit up the Herttfordshire skyline last weekend. As one of the leading UK fireworks display companies Fantastic Fireworks was commissioned by Lord Salisbury to mark the 400th anniversary of his majestic stately home Hatfield House. The 25-minute display was choreographed to a live performance of Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks played by The 16 orchestra. The house’s south front was lit by colourful moving lights while fireworks erupted from the rear, the roof and the formal gardens at the front. Our fireworks display designer Ian Woodroof used every nook and cranny of the roof to create some beautifully artistic effects, including an 100ft waterfall hung between two chimney stacks. Other effects included rows of fountains sparkling along the roof edge and around the central clock tower, lifts of red, green and gold starbursts from the back of the house and lattices of pretty roman candles in the front garden. The display comprised more than 14,000 individual effects which took two days to rig and required a crane to hoist many on to the roof. Once set out, the fireworks were wired into a computerised firing system and ignited on the call of one of our musically skilled pyrotechnicians who was reading the score alongside the conductor. The display, which was hailed ‘the best they had ever seen’ by many of the several thousand who attended, rounded off one of our busiest ever summers. From Castle Howard, Kirkstall Abbey and Kenwood to Warwick Castle, Birmingham Artsfest and Hatfield House, Fantastic Fireworks has once again demonstrated its ability to perform at the highest level of professional excellence. Watch the highlights here.