Fireworks Saturday

Well there is one day to go before the big show and its been a super busy day up at the Castle.  SCO Connect has been running workshops all day showing behind the scenes of the Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert 2010.  Community groups and BOS employees were invited to take part in workshops about the music of the concert and to have a tour of the fireworks site.

The concert tomorrow night features music from old Hollywood films from the 40s, 50s & 60s by some huge names in film music; Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Leonard Bernstein, Bernard Herrmann and Franz Waxman. 

Pete Sparkes, our workshop leader, guided us through the world of film music and helped us create some of our own.  Using a clip from Waxman's Taras Bulba, we composed our own version of the sound track featuring galloping horses, clashing swords and cossack dancing. Lawrence Gill, our clarinetist, provided us with many Ukranian folk melodies to transport us to the wide open plains.

Next up Alan and Steve, from Pyrovision, explained the fascinating world of fireworks.  The Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert is thought to be the longest and biggest live fireworks show in Europe, a pretty good claim to fame for the Edinburgh International Festival and the SCO! 

Here are some interesting facts about the fireworks you will see tomorrow night:

• It takes 6 weeks to fuse all the fireworks ready for the show

• A week is required to set-up the show at the Castle with a team of 15

• Hundreds of thousands of fireworks will be fired tomorrow night

• All the firing is done electrically with miles and miles of wire around the Castle

• It takes around 39 man hours for every minute of music to set-up the show

• The famous waterfall lasts for 1 minute 30 seconds and uses 74 individual fireworks

• Most of the fireworks are specially designed and made in China for the Edinburgh show

• The Castle will all be cleaned up and handed back to Historic Scotland by 2am on Monday morning

We hope you get a good spot to view the fireworks and enjoy the show!