Champion Chinese team to defend SeaFire title in Surfers Paradise tonight
WHO knew there was more to fireworks than just an array of beautiful colours and explosions? We chat to the Chinese team ahead of there title defence performance at SeaFire tonight.
Gold Coast
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THEY’RE the masters of manipulating colours, designs and sounds to evoke our senses.
And the Chinese pyrotechnics team has put together a distinctly magical fireworks display in a bid to defend its prestigious title against an illustrious Philippines side.
Director Leo Liu said the team had brought a completely new display to the table for tonight’s SeaFire event.
“We’ve taken some leanings out of last year,” he said.
“We saw the crowd reaction (last year) and have tried to capture and accent the more poignant moments in our display.
“We get a lot of enjoyment our of seeing people enjoying our designs.”
The secret to pulling off an exceptional display, flows deeper than simply setting off fireworks.
“If we can start with an emotive soundtrack, the choreography and fireworks will fall into place and the script will write itself,” he said.
Six months of hard work will culminate in the spectacular light show tonight, where more than six tonnes of fireworks — 50,000 individual pyrotechnic events — from three barges will light up the night sky.
The Chinese powerhouses, aware the level of competition has increased significantly.
“While we’d like to win, and we do know a bit about the competition, we know they’ll be stiff competition,” he said.
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“We feel we’ve made it better than last year, and not feeling over confident. It’s hard when we don’t quite know what they’ve got in store.”
Mr Liu has also given the Gold Coast the ultimate tick of approval.
“For us, Surfers Paradise is the most beautiful place we’ve ever done fireworks,” he said.
“We’ve done them all over the world, but here the people are friendly. It doesn’t really feel like work, it’s more of a holiday — we love it.”
Skylighter Fireworks Max Brunner said the Australian team, although unable to compete, has played a pivotal role in the running of the competition.
“We’ve looked at both of the designs, we help facilitate as a provider — we provide labour and support. They come out and set up their designs.
“I’ve looked at both the animations — they at a very high standard, so I think it’s going to be close. They’re quite unique designs, and their individual style, flair and traits will be evident to the audience during the shows.”
The sky is their canvas, and teams must use it to the best of their ability if they want to take out the prize in Australia’s only international fireworks competition.
“Soundtrack production, the arrangement, choreography, accents, punctuation, synchronisation, creativeness and how they tell a story all comes into the judging criteria,” Max said.
“They’re trying to stir up emotion, ultimately get the oohs and ahhs from the audience, but they need variety and balance. The ability to hold someone’s attention for longer than a few minutes is key. There’s a bit of psychology in it.”
Surfers Paradise Alliance CEO Mike Winlaw said the weather forecast for clear skies on the weekend was expected to see up to 90,000 people pour into the precinct for the event.
“We were worried about a low out near New Zealand at one stage which could have caused swells,” he said.
“Swell is not what you want when you are taking three barges out through the Seaway but it’s all good now and the strong wind forecast has taken the swell away.”
Mr Winlaw said Seafire attracted one of the largest one-day crowds on the Coast.
“From the night through the day we are going to see well over 80,000 or 90,000 people pack the precinct,” he said.
“The message is to get in early and we have a whole range of activations such as the superheroes throughout the afternoon.
“It’s one of those times when the roads will be packed so the best way to get into Surfers is to get on the G (light rail) and get a position on the beach.”
Mr Winlaw said while Surfers had experienced a slump in trade post-Commonwealth Games, businesses were looking forward to the spoils of Seafire.
“We had that slump but we’re starting to see good traction in Surfers because we’ve had some big events post Games such as Live and Viva,” he said.
“Our events strategy is always on. We have an events program that runs all year round.
“Some events are bigger than others but we have significantly more traders than other areas. We have 700 traders on our books, from hotels to coffee shops.
“We are the tourist and economic heart of the city and if we don’t feed the heart, we don’t get good, constant crowds.
“That constant flow of events is part of our strategy.”
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