A specialist firework company from Bristol has taken home the top prize at the prestigious British Firework Championships 2023.
Skyburst The Firework Company, based in Upper Langford, performed their winning display to around 200,000 people at the annual event in Plymouth on Thursday night, wowing the crowd and judges alike.
The epic two-day event saw crowds gather at the Citadel and The Hoe with six teams competing and firing from the Mountbatten breakwater.
Skyburst’s 10-minute display included over 580 individual fuses being lit and around half a ton of explosives being fired by the 15-person team. The company is well-known for pushing the boundaries of pyrotechnics, having fired many iconic displays in Bristol over the years.
Alan Christie, director of Skyburst, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have won this year’s British Firework Championships. We have attended six or seven times before and placed second or third so to take home the win is just amazing.
“We’re so pleased that the crowd loved the show and that we wowed the judges, they couldn’t stop shaking our hands at the presentation! A lot of work went into the display so to gain this recognition for our team and our efforts really means a lot.
“We imported specialist fireworks from Spain, Italy and the Far East and it was a long process to design and finesse the show, sticking to the budget, timings and kilo limits set by the competition organisers.
“I started designing the show in late March using computer technology and built it in sets, continuing to reorder it and tweak it until the end of July. I wanted the show to have peaks and troughs and the timing had to be spot on.
“I think the piece de resistance was the false finale. The show built in intensity and the crowd thought it was over and then we fired the main finale and they went wild! We were firing over half a mile away and we could feel the atmosphere from there. The ships on the water were blowing their horns and it was an incredible moment.”
Skyburst has been creating memorable shows locally, nationally and internationally for over 30 years. Run by hobbyist turned expert Alan Christie, Skyburst has over 200 professional firers across the UK dedicated to providing safe and effective shows and is now one of the UK’s largest firework companies.
Alan continued: “We are all absolutely over the moon, it’s amazing to see how far we have come and I’d like to thank my team for their passion, hard work and talent in delivering a winning show to thousands of people. I’m so proud.”
This was the 26th annual British Firework Championships, hosted by Plymouth City Council and in partnership with Brittany Ferries.
