La Merce - Fireworks in Barcelona

We headed back down to the square about 7:30 p.m. while it was still light. We had read in the paper that the show started at 8:30. When we arrived, the main street, which had been closed off for the festival, was about one third full.

Here we have to switch to a density factor because while the street appeared almost full, in the next two hours the crowd would quadruple and they would all fit into this same street with the overflow crowded into the large plaza at the end. We were lucky enough to find a seat on a row of fountains that ran the length of the street. As we waited the square just kept filling up. We waited for two and a half hours chatting as best we could with other Barcelonans.
(The official estimate for the size of the crowd was 500,000.)

During the wait, there were young people carrying large black shoulder bags and were distributing the "Bengalas" or sparklers for the attempt to break the world's record for the most Bengalas lit simultaneously in one place. Everyone in the square had at least one and some kids couldn't wait and lit theirs early but most people waited to join in the attempt.

Outside Inside
The Bengalas were gold in color, about 5 inches long and very easy to light.

At 9:30 p.m. the music started - the whole show was choreographed to show tunes and the P.A. system was excellent. They used the fountain at the top of the street (Font Montjuic) to warm up the crowd. The fountain danced to the music and they lit it with beautiful colored lights. It was a great start.

Then the "real" show began. It will be impossible for me to relay all the effects used as there were so many. The choreography was excellent - the music was great, the crowd seemed to really appreciate the show.

I'm not sure if the operators only shot chlorate stars or if, like Saturday night, the intensity of the colors was due to our very close proximity, but they seemed to be the most vibrant colors I'd ever seen. And what a show! It seemed to never end. One effect after another all appropriately set to the specific piece of music.

For example, when they played the theme from "2001", the effects grew in intensity with the music, and all of the major chords were set off by precisely timed shots which broke at the just the right time. When the smoke would linger in the square, the operators would turn on the fountain again and use it to keep your attention until the smoke had a chance to rise over the surrounding buildings and dissipate.
The show stopped about 10:30 and the lights went out in the area. Everyone was instructed to light their Bengalas. The account in the next mornings paper stated that we had set a new world record with over 270,000 bengala lit in one place.

The Square lit with 270000 Bengalas

After they burned out, the show started up again. At one point, while doing songs from Phantom of the Opera, they launched an effect which I think was a bottom shot that broke and launched long, horizontal filaments of color. (I couldn't see any parachute, but they could have used them.) Gold, blue, red neon like colors in a mass of 5 or 6 which hung, falling, in the sky for what seemed to be 2 or 3 minutes. They looked like neon lights running horizontally. Some changed colors as they dropped slowly, gold to blue, red to white. They were most unusual and very beautiful.

Then there was the finale. I can still see the sky covered with the most intensely colored confetti I've ever seen. The salutes were deafening. What a show, I'm still smiling with the feeling.

The operators, we found out later, were Pirotecnica Igual from Barcelona.
The other nice thing to know is that the PGI (Pyrotechnics Guild International) was represented by at least one member at this record breaking event.

John Sergneri ... Back SITE MAP