British Olympic Association

We love a challenge and when this enquiry came in we were very excited to be involved with such a prestigious occasion in London Olympic year.

We completed a thorough site survey and meeting with Caroline Neall, Treasurer for the BOA (British Olympic Association) Chairman’s Summer Ball with the directive of providing two unique, memorable displays over two days in what was a very special Olympic year.

When we first met with the organiser of this event we were told that we had been chosen as the provider of these special displays because she had seen another one of our displays first hand, had heard about our excellent reputation and she told us that she had every faith in our ability to create something different and very special.

The firing site for the display was in an interesting position on the opposite side of a wooded valley, on top of a hill. The problem that we had to face was how to offload heavy equipment and fireworks within the time scale we were given and rig an artistic and creative display that would never be forgotten. We used quad bikes to transport everything to the firing site in wet and extremely windy conditions…in the middle of the summer.

The display was rigged electronically and fired to a patriotic soundtrack whereby the words would replicate what was happening in the display. We had to contend with a sound delay because our audience would be standing close to the sound system whilst we were 300m away on the opposite hill.

The countdown began and at zero we launched into what many guests had described as the very best fireworks display they had ever seen. We fired special red, white and blue sequences to represent the colours of the UK in the Olympic Games. This was always going to be our opening sequence which was fired from a central aisle with two other flanks so that the display was completely symmetrical.

We represented the Olympic torch racing around the Olympic Stadium with a fast chaser sequence of gold comets firing from one end of our firing site to the other and back again. We then raced into a special high level fireworks sequence with the Olympic Ring colours, followed by one of our special 2012 sequences that made everyone gasp. Due to our design capabilities with manufacturing and importing fireworks we designed golden brocade rings that burst at 500ft into golden rings that cascade down for a long burn duration.

We fired a display with 100m width that reached heights of around 750ft. We could hear the cheering from our firing position on the opposite hill so we knew we had hit the right note with the audience. The show concluded with a silver line of cakes and shells for sheer brightness which was followed by a giant golden finale that stretched for several hundred metres in the night sky that looked incredible.

We then fired another similar display the next day for new guests and again had the same result, people gasping at our display and Caroline (organiser) could not stop smiling. Due to the success of the displays we were personally invited by Lord Moynihan (then BOA Chairman) to his private party on the Sunday! It was the perfect ending to a weekend of high octane displays that again put Frontier Fireworks firmly on the map for creative, spectacular displays.