British Firework Championships, Plymouth

British Firework Championships are amazing!! Great fireworks, and best of all, its free!

The British Firework Championships in Plymouth featured 6 teams, 2 days and an awful lot of fireworks!

Plymouth 2008 always promised a lot and apart from a brief spell of heavy rain on the Wednesday even the weather delivered more than was expected! The teams on the first day must have been glad the forecasters got it wrong as they were blessed with a clear day for virtually the entire time, that said, the sun was clearer on the second day and the wind less after the storms of the morning had passed.

The displays started with a bang this year.. quite literally as the first team began their display with an interesting arrangement of firecrackers suspended along the front of their firing site. The initial minute or so was very impressive with a truelly spectacular opening sequence after the slightly odd opening, but then unfortunately the display started to fall a little flat, building gently rather than in waves of crescendo to what was ultimately although visually pleasing, a very low key finale. In hindsight it was revealed that a large portion of the display failed to fire. The second team on the first night had a very average display, and although there were moments of brilliance the overall effect was still eclipsed by the first display, even though they were missing most of their larger sequences. The third team on the first night opened with a delightful sequence of comets fanning backward and forward before launching into a seemingly endless array of aerial and low level sequences producing some of the most stunning firework photography I have ever seen. The crowd around my position were in awe of this display, and it clearly was the best of the first night by a clear margin.

The second night progressed in a similar format to the first... the opening display began strongly and promised much, however fell slightly flat before delivering a reasonable finale that got the crowd excited. Unfortunately the second display proved to be hugely disappointing and didn't seem to ever really get going, the finale however was very good but you can't help but wonder if too much focus was placed there, and not on the display as a whole. Lastly were the Welsh champions who had constructed a large arch from which to launch many of their effects, although the overall effect was lost slightly due to the distance the idea was good, and well supported by the sequences fired overhead during the latter part of its use, the finale was strong, if not a little heavy in the use of blue and red, but again this was the strongest display of the evening with the entire competition now in the balance of the teams to have fired last on each of the days.

Given the chance to watch the 2 displays one after another on video whilst waiting for the result it was going to prove tricky to predict a winner, although the display from the first night had it in my mind due to the excellent choreography of their sequences and the imagery it produced. It was a slight surprise then to hear the result had gone to the display from the second night, no doubt adding to the speculation that this overall event cannot be won from the first night! However one of the largest surprises was the announcment of perhaps the weakest display of all being awarded 3rd place! That being the second display on the second night!!

1st Pendragon

2nd Star

3rd Phoenix

My personal opinion was

1st Star

2nd Pendragon

3rd Dragon (even with their missing sequences)

MiddleGround