PROJECT X

PX0048A.

DISPLAYS

Before the birth of PROJECT X, I was always interested in anything pyrotechnic from garden fireworks to The Saturn V rocket. I used to do small November 5th displays for the local kids and then for friends at our local museum Bletchley Park. I bought fireworks for a display I was going to do for the Volunteers but someone announced it on the local radio. Bletchley Park was swamped with people and the display went ahead. There were other things in the display too like my Abbot self-propelled gun doing a firing simulation and a large bondfire lit electrically with a loud explosion. This display made a profit. The second year we had a celebrity press the button for the bondfire and a bigger display which also made a profit. The third year saw the use of the Abbot self-propelled gun firing into the bondfire to light it, several rocket effects you cannot buy, a "vietnam" style napalm drop ( see film effects ) and a fairground. This also made a profit. The next year I had been doing some displays for a company and had aquired certificates in the art and had also passed a course with the Institute of Explosives Engineers. I ordered the fireworks for the Bletchley display with this company and had included all the ones I thought were good that I had seen at the major displays I had fired at. Then the backbiters that you get in every volunteer situation struck. The whole thing broke down. The bondfire didn't get built leaving piles of pallets everywhere, it lost money, there was no extra attractions and the next year it just looked like any other display which also lost money. Need I say more. This was good for me as it made me realise that there was more opportunity outside. Things have taken off and Project X let off more than three tons of fireworks over the bondfire period 1999 and roughly the same during 2000. 2001 was just as mad and due to the imminent birth of our baby I thought 2002 should be a break from the usual. The last display I will do is one in September 2002 at Woughton Campus, Milton Keynes for a friends 50th birthday.