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Fireworks 2015

The wheel was meant to be...
a sonic amplifier or something... There was a mad hatter looking character in the middle of the lawns on a small stage surrounded by searchlights... He was experimenting with "phases" each phase had a theme... Rock, dance, pop etc. And he was conducting it all.
 
Oh hahahaha!

I've just looked at a few videos on YT - nothing worth posting as the people who uploaded them have major Vertical Video Syndrome. But anyways, it looked truly awful. Nice pretty fireworks but as a show it doesn't seem to work.

Looks to me like they've tried to revisit the old Dr Pop Rocket type of show... but failed miserably.

At least I have rides in the dark to look forward to on Sunday.
 
PeteB said:
Oh hahahaha!

I've just looked at a few videos on YT - nothing worth posting as the people who uploaded them have major Vertical Video Syndrome. But anyways, it looked truly awful. Nice pretty fireworks but as a show it doesn't seem to work.

Looks to me like they've tried to revisit the old Dr Pop Rocket type of show... but failed miserably.

At least I have rides in the dark to look forward to on Sunday.
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I'm sure you will like it :) better than 2014 even go as far as say better than 2013
 
I thought it was quite good, the wheel worked quite well with some excellent lighting (quite reminiscent of a Pink Floyd concert), the story was cheesy but acceptable and it was great to see some performers in the show - Especially Sir Algenon. Oh and the finale music was a nice slight change from the usual we're used to.

A few gripes I have...
-The music was too quiet, it was hard to distinguish what the songs were sometimes.
-Lack of pyro.
-The wheel looked too much like a fairground ride with the strip lighting.

Pretty good show, I enjoyed it.
 
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From what I've heard and read (not visiting 'til Sunday) that lighting has been massively overused this year in the fireworks display, and we were all saying that the lighting at Scarefest was not very good. Surely it wouldn't be that difficult to have some of the fireworks lighting budget put into the Scarefest lighting budget?
 
Really enjoyed tonight's show. I thought the live Sir Algenon character worked better as a live performer than it would have done as a video screen. Sound was loud enough for me, but we were on the centre of the lawn quite close to the front.
There was a reasonable amount of fireworks, perfectly timed (as Jubilee always do) to the music. The sections with no fireworks worked well to allow smoke to clear as otherwise fireworks couldn't be seen.
The wheel could have been used better, but worked well for what it was.
I enjoyed the song choices, but Live and Let Die always goes well with fireworks. The finale music was great and a million times better than the previous ITHOTMK they used.

Overall this was my favourite display for a few years, a huge amount better than last year.
Also only
one mention of resort![\spoiler]
 
Having never actually visited Alton Towers Fireworks before, I found Friday's show to be a very entertaining display, though there are still minor points I picked up on that could have been improved upon.

Anyway, on with a (spoiler heavy) review...

Personally I enjoyed the story centring around Sir Algenon with his 'Symphonic Visualiser' in the form of pyrotechnics and lighting, and 'Sonic Amplifier' in the form of the wheel in the centre - even if it was incredibly cheesy at times. Generally the idea of bringing some action towards the audience (with the wheel and Sir Algenon/dancers on raised staging in the audience itself) was excellent, making the display a bit less distant and passive.

I was apprehensive from past years that Fireworks would be another chance for shouting out how amazing the "Alton Towers Resort" is, but it was pleasantly surprising to have barely any hint of marketing throughout the whole performance.

Music choices were nicely varied, with only a portion being dedicated to pop music. Instead, genres were broken up into 'phases' of Sir Algenon experimenting. The finale produced by IMAscore at least went some of the way to freshening the tradition of ItHotMK, using elements from Hex's theme (and possibly others, I'm not too great at picking out music) and other quirks to build up into the main event. Stood about 2/3rds of the way back on the lawn I thought that the audio was at a good volume, but at the same time I don't have any comparison to previous years.

I would agree with others that at times lighting was excessive. Often the lasers on the wheel were quite distracting, at least for me diverting attention away from the pyrotechnics behind. I would also agree that the movers rigged onto the wheel didn't get their full effect with being so dim. Regardless, lighting overall was very impressive - though to be honest any rig of movers is enough to interest me.

It's hard to compare pyrotechnics never seeing a show live before, but what was their was well timed and effective.

Overall I really liked the display. The wheel was a good addition, brought to life as a machine by its lighting (mainly the LEDs on the circumference and lasers) as well as small pyrotechnics flying off it.

A good show all round.
 
Yeah it seems they have used 4 RGB lasers on the wheel at 12, 3, 6, and 9 clock positions. I think the wheel movers look dim because everything else is so bright and overpowering. I'd like to see them trim the beams back a bit in future with less powerful lamps and focus more on uplighting the trees, towers, and surrounding areas. Leave the big beam effects to the lasers.

There's a full video now on YT, don't watch if you want to see it live first:


Overall it doesn't seem too bad. Quite a fun show but lacking polish with decent effects. Personally, I still prefer the story driven special effect shows, they felt more like real theme park shows and somewhat Disney-esque. However, Towers should be praised at least for doing something without a hint of marketing in it.
 
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Ah, in that case I apologise. I thought you were talking about the "generic moving heads".
Incidently, I showed the construction pictures to the guys at work yesterday, and no one could identify exactly what those lamps are! Best guess was "some kind of Chinese rip off of a Clay Paky something" :p
 
DiogoJ42 said:
Ah, in that case I apologise. I thought you were talking about the "generic moving heads".
Incidently, I showed the construction pictures to the guys at work yesterday, and no one could identify exactly what those lamps are! Best guess was "some kind of Chinese rip off of a Clay Paky something" :p
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They've got a lot of SGM kit on this show and the movers on the wheel look to me like the G-Spot or the G-Profile. They're IP65 too which would explain why there's no inflatable domes over them.
 
I assumed they were CP Alphabeams, but those with far more know how than me could not identify them.
 
PeteB said:
For the first time in god knows how long, it seems Towers Nerd aren't doing a live stream today. Actually, updates everywhere have been pretty thin since Sunday. I guess a few people will be in for a surprise tonight :)
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Sorry Pete I was forced to go to a brewery tour last night so no live feed.
 
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