Normally, I report that I met with the designer of a display and give some background. However, this time, I not only met with Andy Wiggins of Jubliee Fireworks for the second participation in Montreal, but I am actually on the crew.
Jubilee competed in 2015 and, uniquely in the competition’s history, were rewarded with the Gold Jupiter despite being the first competitor. Despite this win, Andy had been disappointed with some aspects of their display and he told me they had learned a lot since 2015. A lot of time had been spent on-site making various angled structures out of wood to hold the one-shots in the display, which had cost a lot of time and effort. This time, Jubilee shipped their racks from the UK along with their fireworks. This has greatly reduced the amount of time required during the pre-mounting phase, which is important as there are over 2500 one-shots.
Products come from various European manufacturers with Hamex in Slovenia and Guiliani in Italy making products specially for the display. Other companies include Ricasa and Europla from Spain as well as Jubilee’s owb-brand Chinese products. Andy told me that one thing they had learned in 2015 was that ramp 4 didn’t really add anything to the display so it will not be used. Ramp one will have the usual 5 positions, with 9 on ramp 2 and 21 across the front of ramp 3. Ramp 3 also includes 3 access ramps – these will be used together with two pontoons in between the access ramps and a further five pontoons forming ramp 5.
Enthusiasts of large calibre shells will be pleased with the range 175mm-300mm shells used in the display too!
The theme of the display, Gunpowder and Greasepaint, is designed to highlight a very theatrical style, with Andy telling me he was not the greatest fan of musicals, but, after watching the famous Strictly Come Dancing television show in the UK realized that this form of music is very popular and will get people moving.
