On The Road Again
Designed by John Werner and Cindy Vermuelen, Galaxis firing with 77 modules / 5390 cues
Vulcan’s display was the most anticipated of the 2015 season and so our eyes were even more closely watching the local weather forecasts and radar maps. Since John and Cindy revealed this would be their most complex display ever (but, interestingly, only the fourth the two had worked on together and only the 5th performed by Vulcan), it was clear that any weather issues could have an impact on their setup.
The display-day forecast of heavy rain with thunderstorms, then clearing, then potentially more storms was a worry at the back of everyone’s mind. However, come Saturday, the weather gods appeared to cooperate and early morning light rain cleared up to leave a dry day. Despite this, though, a large crew could be spotted working on ramps 2 and 3 as late as 5pm on the evening of the display. This, of course, was cause for concern, since time pressures are the antithesis of an accurate setup. It was clear the setup was huge and, overcoming my dislike of heights, I rode on the large Ferris Wheel to better observe the ramps and found them to be packed to the gills!
As can be seen in the photo, every possible space was used and they had included the much talked about “lollipops” and some other devices that they had also used in their 2013 debut display. Speaking of 2013, I can understand the pressure on their team not to repeat that and so the atmosphere at La Ronde was particularly tense at showtime as the winds had diminished to essentially zero and the display did not start at 10:00pm. I presume the reason for the late start was the fact that some pre-recorded segments of announcements were late to be played, but this added to the feeling of tense anticipation for the start of the display.
After the countdown, nothing, just the soundtrack. The initial fear that there were problems rose to the surface, but, actually, their sound track was cleverly referring to their 2013 problems. The sound of a radio being tuned, then, the right frequency was found, and the display burst dramatically to life.
There was a palpable sense of relief! Within a couple of minutes, it was obvious this was going to be an exceptional display. The quality of the products was excellent and the firing patterns used was interesting with extremely precise choreography throughout.
A lot of what makes a good display for me is how entertaining and surprising it is. I’ve seen every firing angle and position used over the years, so there really can be no serious surprises. Yet, Vulcan surprised and delighted me and made me laugh out loud! During the “Low Rider” segment, simple gerbs attached to flexible rods burst to life – but these were silver gerbs that burned red. They milled around in a bizarre way, as if they were a bunch of guys who didn’t know how to dance, but were trying to anyway with the music. I laughed so hard! Other nice touches were, again, pyrotechnically simple. The entire front of ramp 3 filled with criss-crossing dazzling silver fountains. So simple, but stunning! Wheels firing across ramp three as the sound of a car starting in the sound track. Brilliantly coloured microstar gerbs, coloured strobes (though I learned these were coloured via lenses – but no matter, the idea worked really well). The famous “bounce comets” from their 2013 display. All these things and more! Amazing mines of crazy silver bees that hovered in front of ramp 3 and seemed to hang there defying gravity.
The shells that we could see were great – fantasic pattern shells with heart-shaped pistils. Brilliant strobes, other shells with semi-circular rainbow patterns mixed with comets. Dazzling flash shells and the anticipated “sweeper” shells, where rings of stars rotated in a colour sequence (with the same in cakes). Whistles of all types, both in shells and from cakes.
The weather was not kind. The “Smoke on the Water” segment contained a bitter truth as the smoke started to obscure the shells by about the half way point of the display, but most of the low-level material stayed visible and always with vibrant colours. Sometimes enough smoke cleared that we could see the high shells, but, sadly, not always. I did see on video from another vantage point later on some really good farfalles – very unusual for an Asian manufacturer. Speaking of that segment, I really liked the “double synchronization” of the launch of one-shots / mines and then their secondary effect forming another perfect timing in the music (such as walls of crackle). Even though individual one-shots are not of great calibre, they were cleverly combined to give the effect of large mines.
The finale was great – loud and long lasting – in fact, a double finale as the two last songs were used as finales. Deafening whistles, Vulcan’s famous “hammer” cakes of salutes, big shells bursting above – even if we couldn’t always see them, we could hear them and knew they were “right”.
A few negative points. Some of the music edits were a tad coarse, but maybe that was the intent due to the way the soundtrack was constructed. Sometimes the shell firing sequences were a little bit mundane and there was some repetition of effects. A bit more of a complex interplay between the low and high level effects could have been used I believe as this give a complex display a feeling of being a bit simple sometimes.
At the end of the display, the audience reacted with great enthusiasm and gave Team Vulcan a well-deserved standing ovation (as did all of us in the Salon des Artificiers afterwards). I don’t know how the judges will take into account the weather conditions – but I know that I was greatly entertained and thoroughly enjoyed this excellent display. I will be astounded if it’s not on the podium and am sure will be talked about for years to come.