European fireworkers sent their greetings to Brno. The very first composed pyromusical shone at Ignis Brunensis

Brno - The show Greetings from Europe retrieved choreographies from seven European countries: France, Poland, Germany, Slovakia, Austria, Portugal and Switzerland. The audience enjoyed a pyromusical composed from music and choreography from fragments of past years' contesting shows.

Fireworkers from Czech Flash Barrandov SFX had to come up with an unusual idea for keeping the festival international. Instead of a single-themed show, they connected various parts of successful fireworks from 2016-2019 with original music, so the musical contained classical music, film music and power metal, and, towards the end, a happy melody followed by Nirvana's grunge hit.

The chapters of the pyromusical differed in design, effects and color. During the finale, the fireworks filled the sky. The show was appreciated by the audience: "I enjoyed seeing the Portugal firework in Portugal colors and overall the variety," said Aleš Slaný. „It was beautiful," concluded Jana Baráková, who watched the show with her family. "The best parts? Portugal, Slovakia, Austria and Switzerland," agreed her family.

"When we thought it up, some fireworking companies were amazed by the idea and even promised they'll visit the show, while others asked questions like how are we planning to show foreign designs with our effects. Our partners from Pyrovision helped us a lot regarding the material," said the festival' Art Director, Jaroslav Štolba from Flash Barrandov SFX.

Re-creating the fireworks, which were meant for Brno dam, for new conditions above Špilberk had been a huge challenge. Jaroslav Štolba disclosed some of the troubles organizers went through: "Since the brand and reputation of Ignis Brunensis had become quite big, every company wanted to win the competition. That means some of the shows we had here in the past years were huge with lots of effects; we couldn't use all of that seven times into one musical with limited budget. At Špilberk, we don't have the water surface fireworkers are used to, everything needed to be smaller and also more quiet. At the same time, we wanted to preserve the ideas, wit, technique and feel, so overall composing a musical from existing parts has been harder than creating one from scratch."