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HSL Fires Up Special Fairytale
Blackburn-based HSL Sales & Distribution – one of the HSL Productions group of companies – supplied all the pyro and special effects to Machine Shop for the opening event of HCA2005, the Hans Christian Andersen bicentennial celebrations. This massive show was staged at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen.
Pyro for the two-hour extravaganza titled ‘Once Upon A Time’, enjoyed in real time by 35,000 people and broadcast live on Danish TV and across Europe by the European Broadcasting Union, was designed by Paul Mann from Machine Shop. He collaborated on the task with whom HSL’s Tom Owen - the two have enjoyed a long and fruitful working relationship.
The overall Once Upon A Time show design team and production included some of the biggest names, suppliers and rental operations in the UK production industry.
The special effects all had to be very big and very precise. They were required to play their own role in creating and building the excitement and mood of an evening of epic fairytale extravagance, celebrating one of the world’s best known storytellers and literary figures.
The first pyro cue went up during percussion based Safri Duo’s set - a series of twenty 35’ high silver jets, and six 50’ mines, fired on a specific music beat. The fact that very little smoke was produced was a great advantage - due to a peculiar set of temperature gradients in the stadium environment; tests revealed that smoke from pyrotechnics positioned upstage rose and then hung at about 15’, obliterating the video screen!
Low capacity smoke was deployed via two customised smoke generators, providing stage cover for the song dedicated to Andersen’s classic ‘Little Mermaid’ story.
Rock goddess Tina Turner brought the performances to a tumultuous end as her set concluded with ‘Simply the Best’. The start of the song was accompanied by a 26 metre wide firework waterfall effect stretching right across the stage, behind Turner and her dancers.
The performance ended with a final pyrotechnic punctuation involving a ‘rapid ripple’ between two circuits stretching the 30 metres across the edge of the stage front. This used a combination of fifteen 50ft mines and 15 60ft Red Comets in each circuit to produce a grand scale effect in keeping with the stadium setting. Thirty kilos of large flake silver glitter was finally deposited across an audience area stretching 70m x 30m, distributed via an overhead rig and giant wind machines with discharge funnels positioned stage left and right. The auditorium was practically obliterated by the glittering shower that ran for two minutes.
19th April 2005
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