Fireworks trade show attracts members of the public too

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Gunning Fireworks Festival - north of Canberra - started out as a trade show for the fireworks industry.  More than 20 years later, it has turned into one of the biggest and most obscure cracker nights in Australia.

Transcript

00:00Fireworks is here to stay, fireworks is the way.

00:13State of the art products, we want to see something different, we also want to see value

00:17for money.

00:18You want noise, you want to feel it.

00:27It's got to excite me, as simple as that, because I'm there to excite the public.

00:31If I'm not excited by new fireworks, I won't buy it, I won't put it in my shed.

00:41The Gunning Fireworks Festival started quite a while ago, 20 years ago, when we wanted

00:45to demonstrate our fireworks to the wholesale fireworks business, the commercial part of

00:49fireworks.

00:50Now it's open to the public as a festival, and what it essentially is, is a full pyromusical

00:57Then there'll be about an hour's worth of fireworks demonstrations.

01:00I originally thought this wouldn't be popular with the public, but they love it, they want

01:04to see what type of fireworks there are, and we call them out on a PA, and funnily people

01:08get right into that.

01:18And then we have another fireworks show at the end of it, which is, you know, thanks

01:22and goodnight.

01:24I'm looking for something new, that if I knew what it was, I would have already purchased

01:28it, and either have it in shows or put it there, because what we see tonight is basically

01:33what the public will see for New Year's Eve.

01:36This is the stock that's come in now for New Year's Eve.

01:39COVID stopped things, but then COVID has also fuelled the restart.

01:44Things are probably better than ever, if you're a fire row at the moment.

01:47There's more festivals, there's more events, there's more money in every community, I think.

01:52Well, Fireworks Australia, they know if they don't impress the professional pyrotechnicians,

01:56the crowd might all love it and cheer, but it boils down to tomorrow and the next month,

02:02they won't sell the stock.

02:03So they're definitely out to show the best that their manufacturers can supply them with,

02:09and if we're not impressed, obviously we're not going to buy it.

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