Friday, May 4, 2012

Renn Fayre 2012 Fireworks

April 28th was the annual Renn Fayre fireworks show at Reed College, making 2012 the fifth year I've done the show (video link at bottom of post). It's all pretty straightforward at this point, so no need for a lengthy post about it. Layout and product were pretty much the same as previous years, with five positions across 200 feet and mostly 1.4G items with a few 1.3G cakes and shells sprinkled throughout the show.

The biggest difference this year was that I now live in Irvine, CA instead of Seattle, making it a bit more difficult to coordinate things from a distance. Additionally, due to moving expenses and other factors, I had very little of my own product to contribute to the show. Usually I add 6+ cases, this time I was limited to some 1.75" shells and wheels. The show was put together somewhat last minute because I had other things going on and didn't have a clear idea of the music I wanted to the show, which led to a bit of procrastination.



The music I ended up choosing was largely just "fun" music with no real unifying theme or genre, but I suppose it doesn't hurt to have a bit more variety than previous years. Soundtrack in order:

Bastion Soundtrack - From Wharf to Wilds
United States of Electronica - Open Your Eyes
Cee Lo - Bright Lights Bigger City
The Presidents of the USA - Love Everybody
For a Minor Reflection - Dansi Dans
Afghan Whigs - Somethin' Hot

Setup went very smoothly, with a large crew of Wolverine West folks as well as several members of NPA. We were prepared for some rain showers, but luckily the weather was perfect and we didn't get a drop this year. As an added bonus, it wasn't quite as cold at night, which I'm sure the crowd appreciated.

I've had some wheels stashed for several years that I've wanted to work into a show, and finally did it this year, but it won't happen again! As I should have expected, no matter what you do to try and make sure they spin freely, they won't do so reliably once lit, so only one of three really spun properly. Lesson learned, next time I'll probably go back to fountains.

The rest of the show went pretty smoothly, the only issues were the usual problems of cakes running longer (CE Rustler) or shorter (WW Dahlias and Bouquets) than planned. Luckily a couple of moments of unintentional dark sky ended up working fairly well with the music, so I don't think they looked too bad. Standout products this year were Just Light It (UP), Pure Intensity (WC), Fighting Rooster (WC), Enough Said (FOA), Thug (WW), and of course the 1.3G cakes, all of which looked fantastic.

I've gotten annoyed with inconsistent cake timing leading to finales that end with a few stray breaks, so this year I changed things a bit. I did the usual scripting where they were supposed to all end at the same time, but then added a five second buffer followed by a 1.3G 600s Peacock and then another five seconds later a volley of thirty 1.75" and twenty 2" shells all on the same cue. This allowed for the cakes to finish whenever they decided to while using the 1.3G cake to fill the gap and then have all the shells break at the same time for a final punch to the show. The 1.4G cakes tended to go over by even more than I expected, but still finished in time for the final shell volley, so it looked great and ended strong. I'll certainly be doing something similar in future years, hopefully with even more shells on the last cue!

Anyway, that is pretty much it, so here is the video