Community Spirit, March 2018

"It’s amazing you really get
something from it, every single day
it’s done by a different pyrotechnics
company and while the majority of
them are local and Spanish some of
them are from Europe, not just
Spain.”
Richard: “Where do they come
from?”
Darren: “They come from all over
Europe. It’s not just Spanish
companies, but Portugal and so on.
One of my favourite companies is
Europlà Pirotecnia. The manager of
Europlà pyrotecnia is Spanish but
English, French and the Dutch work
for them too. You might think you
have seen fireworks, I’ve seen them
since a child but over here they go
that next step further and it just goes
up then up again.”
Richard: “What is it that makes those
fireworks so impressive? I mean you
have years of experience with
pyrotechnics, so what is the
difference?”
Darren: “That comes down to the
individuals in the design and
manufacture of their own products,
like I was saying tomorrow night
there is a firework display being fired
by Ricardo Caballer of RICASA
Pirotecnia. I have already seen a little
bit of their set up today and it looks
really, really good actually. They are
going to have 4 cranes, they are
doing a first ever double vertical
Mascletà. Last year they did a single
vertical Mascletà which was a first
and was amazing. This weekend is
going to be absolutely outstanding.”
Richard: “When you say they are going to
have a first ever double vertical, what
does that mean?”
Daren: “They are going to have 2
Mascletà’s hanging vertically from cranes
2 cranes per Mascletà. A normal Mascletà
would be where they have strings tied to
stands that go along, it looks like a
clothesline. They are really popular over
here and the towns goes nuts, it’s packed.
It’s like a low clothesline or hanging
garlands."
Richard: “So, you will see it going up to
the aerial and then down to the ground
shaker?”
Darren: “It’s very good, they have got a
surprise for us, they are going to put
writing up, I think that is what is 36
metres high. You will have letters coming
from, that is the surprise for us tomorrow
night. The Caballa family themselves,
Ricardo Cabela have been doing it for
years and years, their family have been
doing a historical piece from the late
1800’s, it’s crazy!”
Richard: “I wondered about the
pyrotechnic companies, they are
obviously family traditions?”
Darren: “Absolutely, they work together
to make the mascleta. They look great
when they are hanging down, it looks
pretty as street decorations, and every
company has a different effect/wrapping
or intensity of noise. It could be louder or
shoot coloured smoke into the air, like the
shining stars. For national woman’s day,
they did something special, they did
multi-coloured smoke like a rainbow, it
looked absolutely awesome, another
company did
something similar to promote awareness
of equality.”
Richard: “What is the safety level with all
these explosives going off around the
general public?
Darren: “Funny you should say that
because a new Bill came out yesterday.
It’s different from the city square
Mascletà which I think now pyrotechnics
companies are only allowed to use
between up to 250kg in product weight.
As for the bigger shows they are limited
on burn time and calibre of the shells
being fired. I know tomorrow night there
is 1.275kg of fireworks but they are
allowed more (if needed) because it is on
the other side of the river and it is away
from the people. It is designed perfectly
because it is the right spot but wherever
you are it is going to look pretty good.”
“I do pyrotechnics myself, as I said I had
my own company and I had to close it
down because of the red tape in the UK at
the time, the insurance went sky high, but
so did the safety distance for both storage
and display. The storage facilities distance
started at 75 metres away but it went up
to 500 metres by 2001.”
“This was the distance of the storage
facilities to any public railway or walkway,
which makes perfect sense, so, you can
understand why people want to do the
right thing, it just makes it more and more
difficult. The bases over here, I have not
been to one, but seen pictures of them,
some of the guys that do the pyrotechnics
over here, they are very secure they have
concrete ramps, bunkers and taped off
areas and are extremely secure.”
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