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Fireworks go up before
the rain pours down
By MICHAEL BACHELARD
The rain held off just long
enough last night to allow the
spectacular Skyfire 93 to end to
the strains of Carl OrfFs Carmi
na Burana.
A fireworks display is the only
time when people say "Ooh, aah,"
without sarcasm, and the finale,
when a deluge of gold fire floated
down to the lake, provoked the great
est response.
The chief pyrotechnician behind
the computer banks controlling the
show, Syd Howard, was beaming. He
said he was often not satisfied by one
of his displays, but this time he had
been.
"When I go away happy, I know
things were right," he said, sipping a
celebratory beer. But he has no time
to rest on his laurels. The job goes on,
and he is due in Singapore tomorrow
to discuss a display for the Asian
Games, and then back in Canberra
on Friday for a show at a Raiders
game.
It seems times are good for the
fireworks industry. It was tough,
however, for the three people on the
barges in the lake where the fire
works were launched. They were
stuck between the booming mortars
and the fiery debris floating back to
the water.
"You need some observers out
there," Mr Howard said, pointing at
the 10 pontoons floating in the mid
dle of the lake, and looking glad that
he was not on one of them.
More than five tonnes of fire
works were launched before a crowd
which FM-104.7's station manager,
David Marshall, estimated at
100,000. Many of these, he said, were
perched on vantage points in Can
berra's mountains.
The event went offwithout a hitch
after rain stopped it on Sunday night.
Mr Marshall said it had been the
biggest of the five Canberra festival
displays held so far.
He said the coordination of the
event - light with music-required
fine timing.
The result was amazing. The
pops, crashes and thumps augment
ed the beat of music coming from the
thousands of radios on the ground.
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