• Home Page
• Our Services
  • Events & Shows
    • Firework Displays
    • Fire Shows
    • Sky Lanterns
    • Thai Culture
  • Firework Sales
    • Consumer
    • Professional
• Firework Info
  • Types
    • Cakes
    • Shells
    • Rockets
    • Mines
    • Parachutes
    • Display Tubes
    • Roman Candles
    • Fountains
    • Firecrackers
    • Smoke Bombs
    • Other Types
  • F.A.Q.
  • Glossary
• Fireworks 101
  • Display Design
    • Advanced Planning
    • Final Preparation
    • Site Setup
    • Firing The Display
    • Example Display
    • Some Tips
  • Racks & Launchers
    • Mortar Rack
    • Angled Mortar Rack
    • Candle Rack
    • Set Pieces
    • Micro Displays
  • Mortars
  • Electric Firing
    • How To
    • Connecting
    • Method A
    • Method B
  • Fusing Fireworks
    • Safety Fuse
    • Quick Match
    • Black Match
    • Sticky Match
• Contact/Links
• Sitemap

D.I.Y - BUILDING FIREWORKS DISPLAYS

The Basics

Most "home made" firework displays use commercially available fireworks and are randomly hand ignited, whereas a more professional display uses larger fireworks and an electrical control panel to ignite them. Electrical ignition offers huge benefits over individual lighting. The ability to light groups of fireworks by flicking a switch gives far more control - it's possible to ignite a group of mortars at one location, then instantaneously ignite a group of rockets hundreds of feet away. Any combination of fireworks in any location can be lit off precisely when you want, eliminating the need for running around amongst lit fireworks trying to light others. An electrical ignition system also allows the synchronization of displays to music.

What both types of display have in common though is that in order to be safe as well as beautiful they need to be carefully planned, setup and ignited. This is best achieved in separate stages - advanced planning, final preparation, on-site setup and final ignition.

---

1.0 ADVANCE PLANNING

Around a week before the display date you need to think about the show that you are going to be doing; what types of fireworks you need if you don't already have them, other equipment requirements, legal permissions, weather conditions, location etc and also decide exactly how you want the display to look and feel rather than playing it by ear, especially if you want to synchronize to music. All of these factors are imperative for an effective, safe and successful display.

1.1 Walk through

The first thing you need to do is to take a walk round the area where the display will be held. This will give you an idea about how to layout the display, safe spectator areas, fallout areas, potential hazards such as overhead cables and trees, prevailing weather conditions etc. You should never attempt to set up a display "blind".

1.2 Supplies

It is imperative to have everything that you will need on site during setup, and although each pyrotechnician has his own preferences regarding equipment and tools, here are the guidelines for what equipment is generally needed.

• Breeze Blocks: For stabilizing the fireworks. Enough for all the fountains or repeating aerial devices in the display. Bricks can also be used but cement cinder blocks have the advantage that fireworks can be placed inside them.
• Plyboard: for setting up clusters of fireworks in close proximity, it provides a flat and dry surface and can be stabilized using breeze blocks. Also used to create "stations".
• Wooden posts: For mounting set pieces, wheels, or rocket launching tubes. It's easier to build a mounting frame that will hold the posts vertically rather than trying to pound them into the ground.
• Pipe: For launching rockets. Needs to be wide and long enough to accommodate only the rocket's stick. Too wide piping will send rockets off at unpredictable angles.
• Bin Liners, aluminium foil: To protect fireworks against rain, sparks, and fallout.
• Shovel: For piling dirt / sand around racks for stabilization, and for putting out any fires or stray sparks.
• Gloves: Especially if hand lighting fireworks.
• Sharp Knife: For cutting into fuses, wrappers, boxes. Swiss Army is the best option.
• Wire Cutters / Scissors: Used for cutting electrical or other types of fuse.
• Extra fuse: for extending fuses to create time delays, or for connecting multiple devices together.  Check out the fusing page to see how to do so.
• Mobile Phone: And someone to call so you do not have to leave the site unattended if you forgot something.
• Mag Lite and Mini Mag: One to illuminate a wide area, the other to hold in your mouth while doing fuse work, hand igniting or whatever.
• First aid kit: Burn salve, headache pills, sticking plasters, eye wash as an absolute minimum.
• Water Pistol / Fire Extinguisher: To put out any smoldering fireworks or stray fires. Large "super-soaker" water guns are a good option for this.
• No Entry Tape: To clearly designate the non public areas of the display.
• Protective clothing: safety goggles, gloves, clothing to cover bare arms/legs.
• Methods of ignition:  Windproof lighter, cigarettes, Butane Torch plus a backup.
  

 

---

 

1.3 Weather Considerations

Before you can go ahead with a display, it is imperative to check the weather too see if it might effect the intended displays layout and setup or make it too difficult or dangerous to go ahead.

Wind - Affects both the ascent of burning fireworks and the decent of the fallout.  Because of this, it is extremely important to position the audience upwind of the fireworks to reduce the chance of them getting rained on with sparks.  Remember the higher a device goes, the farther the wind will push it. At the advance planning stage you can only estimate the possible strength and direction the wind is likely to be blowing. You should take this in to account when planning the layout of the display so that when you arrive on site on the firing day you can consider moving around the locations of the different "zones" in your display. If it's blowing towards the area that you originally planned to hold spectators, you should rotate the spectator zone around the firework zone, maintaining the fallout zone in between.  The wind doesn't have to be blowing directly ahead of the audience: as long as the wind direction falls between the two arrows in the diagram, meaning that the wind will carry the fallout away from the audience.

Rain - Doesn't necessarily prevent a fireworks display, provided that it is prepared correctly a display can be held in all but torrential downpours. The setup process for each category of firework described below will include a section on how to weatherproof that particular item.

---

 

1.40 Display Layout & Design

During the advance planning of the show, you need to have a rough idea of the setup of your show on the ground and what you want it to look like when it's in the air. This is separated into two distinct sections, show layout and show design.

 

1.41 Show Layout

Unlike the design of the show which is planned for effect and can be different every time, the layout of the show is planned to ensure the safety of the display - to prevent fires and avoid the possibility of anyone getting burned. So the layout of a display is always the same. The display area is separated into three distinct zones, the Fireworks, the fallout and the spectator zones.

The Firework Zone - Needs to be large enough to space the fireworks well enough apart so that the firer can move around in and retreat from fireworks without bumping into other ones. Main considerations for this zone are that it must be on level ground, free of flammable materials such as wooden structures, dry grass, brush, gasoline cans, or anything else that will burn. It should also be free of objects that could be tripped over while approaching or retreating from a firework (such as rocks, sticks, or potholes). You must also be sure that the area directly above the firing area is free of any obstructions such as power cables, trees, or anything else that could potentially catch fire or deflect the flight of an aerial projectile.

The Fallout Area - Most aerial fireworks leave debris in the sky that doesn't burn up and will fall back down to earth still smoldering. The fallout area is to keep them from landing on spectators. As shown in the diagram, the fallout area surrounds and includes the actual firing area, and needs to be clear of any flammable debris, cars, or people.  It should extend about 75 feet beyond the firework area on all sides. Types of fallout that you can expect from each aerial device are..

• Shells: though a shell burst looks powerful enough to disintegrate its paper casing, it doesn't - the lift charge cup and two paper hemispheres are left behind after the aerial explosion, which fall back to the ground.
• Repeaters: most repeating aerial devices send up dozens of small cardboard tubes full of effects, which fall back empty after they burst.  Most of these contain clay plugs in the bottom, which can make them more heavy than they look.
• Rockets:  no matter what type of rocket or missile you plan on using, there will be debris that falls out of the sky.  Smaller rockets typically blow their thin paper casing when they explode, leaving only a tiny stick to flutter back to earth. Large skyrockets and missiles fall back to the ground with the sticks, fins and plastic nose cone still attached to the cardboard engine casing.
• Roman Candles and Mines: Smaller candles and mines emit stars which burn as they fly upwards, usually leaving nothing left behind to fall back down to the ground.  Larger bore, more elaborate roman candles may eject small tubes of effects which will be left behind after the effects burn up.

The Spectator Area - Is the designated area for people to watch the show. Obviously it needs to have the best possible view to prevent people from moving into the fallout area for a better look at the show. The audience should be able to enter and exit without going through the fallout or firework areas. It's normally a good idea to separate the audience and other areas with no entry tape to keep people from wandering too close to the fireworks during setup or the firing of the display.

---

 

1.50 Show Design

The aim of the design is to go beyond more than a few arbitrary bangs and lights - a fireworks show is designed to create a mood in the spectators, producing a coherent, meaningful, and artistic fireworks display.

 - The Strategy Behind Display Design is explained more in depth here.

 - A Display Design Example is explained here.

Who the audience will be dictates in large part what kind of fireworks you'll be using - huge, loud explosive shells are good for an adult audience, but not for young kids or older people who prefer more visually pleasing displays. Also the location of the display will play a part in what you can safely and considerately use, barrages of loud repeaters set off near a hospital for instance is not a good idea. For these reasons the design of each show will be different, but to make any display successful and effective, there are four main considerations to take into account when choosing fireworks - the distance, the amount, the size and the timing of the display.

1.51 DISTANCE
The spacing between the different elements of a display is critical to how it will look when fired. It's very poor planning to have all the fireworks ignited from the same spot- the fireworks overlap each other and the audience don't get to see the full effect of each element.

The display should be spread out enough to fill up as much of the sky as you can - it's a huge, three dimensional canvas, and as much as possible should be painted with fire. Professional displays will ignite shells, candles, etc. from multiple locations.  The key is to have a huge, long "wall" of fireworks going off, spaced just far enough apart to give each firework room to burst and fill in the space in between. Considerations for each type of firework used are..

• Rockets & Missiles: At the very back - even if aimed straight up, rockets tend to fly a lot higher and a lot more erratically than shells.
• Fountain & Repeater stations: At least 20-30 feet apart. The wide spray from the fountains & the aerial effects from the repeaters will fill the space between.
• Shells & Shell Racks: At least 50 feet apart to keep the large burst diameters from overlapping too much. Shells don't travel up in a perfect line, they tend to go off to the side a little.
• Mines and roman candles: Used to fill the space in between, or put farther away/closer than the shells/stations in order to give the display a little depth.

Rockets & Missiles

Repeaters / Shells / Mines

Roman Candles

Fountains / Set Pieces

Firecrackers / Wheels

AUDIENCE

1.5 AMOUNT
As well as increasing the size of the fireworks as time goes by, the density should be increased. For example, if starting off with 4 fountains, move on to 6 repeaters, 10 roman candles, 30 shells, etc.

1.53 SIZE
A good methodology for building crowd pleasing shows is to start low and work high, beginning with smaller ground based or low level fireworks, and slowly building up to larger and higher ones. Fuse the stations so that fountains ignite first, followed by increasingly more powerful fireworks such as aerial repeaters, mines, and shells.  Do not go the other way around.  Fountains are very beautiful if used at the right time - but they lose all there effectiveness if they are ignited after a large volley of shells.

1.54 TIMING
The final design consideration is how to space out the ignition of the fireworks during the display. There are many possible timing layouts, however there are some general techniques and rules of thumb that apply to all shows to make them highly effective. Remember, if an electrical control box is used to ignite the display, anything can be fired off at any time!

Stations - A critical "rule" regarding stations is to always have at least two stations firing at once. This provides more depth, excitement and beauty to a show. They are highly visual even when used alone, but for larger displays or more demanding audiences, they can be used to form the backbone of a show when used in conjunction with larger fireworks such as shells, mines, rockets and roman candles. Generally they are best fired at the start of a show, although they are great ground fillers when set off at the same time as a barrage of larger ariel fireworks.

Cakes / Repeaters - A fireworks display in and of themselves, cakes are great for use both as time and space fillers. It's important to know the overall effect of a particular cake as some are designed to fire off lots of effects over a longer period of time, while others have fewer but much larger effects and can be used as part of a finale. The size of the individual shells rather than the number of them is the best indicator as to whether to use a cake as a show filler or finisher.

Mortars / Rockets- The "big boys" of the fireworks world, mortars and rockets travel to an altitude higher than cakes before bursting. There are thousands of different types of shells in every colour imaginable, some with crackles, whistles, spinners, and or loud reports. When dozens are ignited at nearly the same time it makes the display extremely intense and bright. Shells are a finale item, fired near the end of the show when stations and cakes reach their most exciting point or start to burn out. If plenty of shells are available, one or two mid sized shells or rockets may be fired towards the middle of the show, provided that you follow the size rules to continue building intensity.

Candles / Fountains- Roman Candles ONLY look good when fired off in large groups. One candle shooting a coloured ball every couple seconds is not at all impressive. The most effective and visually pleasing method of using Roman Candles is to fire them is at angles - usually at the start of the show where they act as a good introduction when followed by stations. They can also be fired off in any part of the display as a transition from different elements of the show. The only time not recommended is during the climax of the action at the end, unless it is part of a musical synchronization which calls for a mellow ending.

---

< Previous Page    -    Next Page >