Lake Geneva – the perfect setting for a Chinese Cracker!

In our 33 years as a professional firework event company our displays have taken us all over the world.

Our latest fireworks epic took us to stunning Lake Geneva in Switzerland. A Chinese telecoms company were staging an international conference and we were asked to provide a spectacular finale. The event organisers, from Shanghai, wanted a bilingual  firework company to help them overcome any language problems in French-speaking Geneva. We won the contract on the strength of our ability to deliver their demanding brief.

In addition to a fireworks display set to music and fired from a barge on the lake, the event organisers wanted a standby display that could be fired if weather conditions made it impossible to fire the barge show.

We proposed a land-based display utilising all-weather cold burn sparkling fountains programmed to the same soundtrack as the main display. Another advantage of this approach was that as non-pyrotechnic devices they did not require a special licence granted by the police, fire and airport authorities.

We got to know what a miracle is and it’s amazing!

Fortunately the weather stayed kind and the backup was not required.  Show day was beautifully warm and sunny and our crew assembled on a quay near the city centre right by the city’s giant landmark water fountain.  It took 7 hours to mount the show on the barge. Then, shortly after 6pm it was attached to a tug and towed the 5 miles to the convention centre on the lake’s edge. This would normally take  nearly 3 hours but with a clear, still evening, accompanied by the most stunning sunset, the barge arrived in just over 2.

Developments in technology mean that all the top firework shows are fired wirelessly, with signals wizzing across the airwaves to detonate the display. The first thing was to establish a connection between Mission Control (a laptop computer on the bank of the lake) with the receivers on the barge and with the PA system that would play the music. With clear line of sight to both, comms were quickly established and the show was all set.

At 9pm we pressed the button and the show fired flawlessly. Guests greeted the glittering finale with a big round of applause and our clients shook us by the hand.

‘What a fantastic show,’ they told us. ‘We are really grateful for your hard work. Finally we got to know what a miracle is and it’s really amazing!’

You can watch the show highlights above.

For more information about staging shows in Europe and further afield please call us on 01582 485555 or email [email protected]