Feista of Lights

There’s something magical about watching fireworks, the way it lights up the night skies. I love watching the faces of the young who become entranced time after time with each exploding bundle of colour. The look on their faces is priceless, it runs the entire spectrum from sheer delight to absolute enchantment. Adult’s delight is not too far behind either.

Fiesta of Lights
In Hawkes Bay, the Fiesta of Lights ended with the incipience of the New Year. They had record crowds between the 18-31st of December, 2008. Set in the lovely surrounds of Waikoko Gardens in the Hastings Showgrounds the fantasy world of thousands of twinkling lights lit up the lake-side walkways. It was the motion light displays that really enchanted people with diving penguins, a fiery sea dragon, bouncing kiwis and leaping deer. All the light displays had been designed and built in Hastings by volunteers.

The only World War II searchlight in New Zealand was also put through its paces every night. The owners Wayne Clarke and Jason Scott happily answered questions as its beam pierced the night sky. It’s said that it could be seen from the Napier to Taupo Highway 60 kilometres away.

Behind the Fiesta of Lights is a group called the Public Dreams Trust. “Established in 1999 , the company specialises in the design and production of traditional and pyromusical fireworks. The mainstay of the Public Dreams Trust, Te Rangi Huata is the creative energy behind public festivals such as Matariki, the Fiesta of Lights, Waitangi Day celebrations and the Fishhook Festival. A common thread of the festivals is that they are designed to bring people together to engage as a community in something larger than themselves.

He likens the event to looking at Christmas tree lights, a feeling of warmth; light banishing dark, and good triumphing over evil, an adventure in the celestial realm. “They lift people’s spirits unconsciously and are also one of the few things publicly that brings together people in an uncommon experience,” he says. “If you observe people leaving a fireworks show, they’re happy.”

His passion for festivals and fireworks was developed overseas. In 1973, at age 18, he went to India to join an International Youth Theatre project. In Asia he saw how cultural celebrations could form part of everyday life and how it was possible to fit as many as 150 festivals into a calendar year. Later he studied stage production at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. In the early 90’s he was living in North America it was that experience of being a volunteer at a winter festival in Canada that awoke his abiding interest in fireworks and his return to live in Hawke’s Bay that enabled him to bring all these threads together.

Fireworks
A ‘firework’ is classified as a low explosive pyrotechnic device used primarily for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. The most common use of a firework is as part of a fireworks display. A fireworks event (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics) is a display of the effects produced by firework devices. It’s believed that gunpowder was originally created by Chinese alchemists attempting to produce gold artificially by combining other substances. Fireworks for entertainment purposes became a natural extension of the Chinese creation of gunpowder. Important events and festivities such as Chinese New Year and the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival were and still are times when fireworks are guaranteed sights.

Fireworks are generally classified as to where they perform, either as a ground or aerial firework. In the latter case they may provide their own propulsion (skyrocket) or be shot into the air by a mortar (aerial shell). The most common feature of fireworks is a paper or pasteboard tube or casing filled with the combustible material, often pyrotechnic stars. A number of these tubes or cases are often combined so as to make, when kindled, a great variety of sparkling shapes, often variously colored.

The skyrocket is a common form of firework, although the first skyrockets were used in war. The aerial shell, however, is the backbone of today’s commercial aerial display, and a smaller version for consumer use is known as the festival ball in the United States. Such rocket technology has also been used for the delivery of mail by rocket and is used as propulsion for most model rockets.

In American history the earliest settlers brought their enthusiasm for fireworks with them. Fireworks and black ash were used to celebrate important events long before the American Revolutionary War. The very first celebration of Independence Day was in 1777, six years before Americans knew whether the new nation would survive the war; fireworks were a part of all festivities.

I’m enchanted by light shows so I’ll be back telling you about celebrations, compounds (how you get the myriad of colours) and various effects. It’s just gonna go off in here tomorrow!