Czech Designer: Music is key to my fireworks

Flash Barrandov SFX’s designer Jaroslav Štolba reveals before Saturday's fireworks show how he creates fireworks and how the shows in Brno and Cannes differ.

Which part of this year’s show do you like best?

Musically, the parts of the show are quite different… so which one am I looking forward to, or which one am I curious about? I’m definitely curious about the compulsory segment, the song “Discombulate”, because I expect different interpretations from the Swiss and the Finns, and that’s often very interesting. I had the most fun with Kate Bush (“Running Up That Hill”) and Twenty One Pilots (“Heathens”) as they’re complex, poetic, and dramatic, and I think they’ll greatly influence the audience’s overall impression of the show.

In your pyromusicals, you often work with very interesting songs and remixes. How do you choose the remixes?

I try to actively listen to non-commercial music on trusted channels; colleagues sometimes introduce me to their latest discoveries, and this year, a client’s request led me to listen to 80s remixes from the sci-fi series Stranger Things. (Thank you to the organizers of the traditional City Festivities in Děčín for that!)

When you’re creating a fireworks show, what comes first – the design or the soundtrack?

The first building block of a pyromusical is the music; it speaks to the designer, calls for interpretation, sets the tempo and harmony, influences the geometry, and ultimately even determines the selection of specific fireworks effects, which, in the best-case scenario, are manufactured and “tailor-made” directly for individual scenes. To achieve this, it’s necessary to study the soundtrack for several months, sometimes even a year in advance; the products come from Spain, Portugal, Italy, China…

With part of the show from Brno, you’re heading to Cannes, the world-famous fireworks festival on the French Riviera. How does the Cannes festival differ from Ignis Brunensis? And are they similar in any way?

Cannes, along with the Canadian festivals, served as inspiration for the creation of Ignis Brunensis. Cannes is the oldest festival in the world (founded in 1967) and, from the very beginning, it has been an artistic fusion of fire and music. Together with Montreal, it is the most prestigious.

How challenging is it to prepare a fireworks display for Cannes, compared to a show for Ignis Brunensis?

In Brno, we have one platform on the lake: a pontoon approximately 90 meters wide. In Cannes, there are five pontoons plus 10 smaller catamarans. Together, they form a 500-meter-wide array directly in front of the legendary La Croisette promenade on the Mediterranean’s Côte d’Azur. The challenge is therefore extreme; the show takes a week to prepare, and due to maritime traffic safety, work is done only at night…

Flash Barrandov SFX will present its “Running Up That Hill” fireworks display on Saturday, June 27, at 10:30 p.m.; before the fireworks, a drone show with 500 drones will take place. The pyro-musical, featuring music by Twenty One Pilots, Kate Bush, and Thomas Bergensen, serves as a preview of a part of the show prepared for Europe’s largest fireworks festival in Cannes, France.

Dominika Pivodová Lišková