here is a question for you guys who do your own shows:

[Icooclast]

about how many fireworks would you use for a show that is about 20-22 min. in length? doesn't have to be exact, just ball park it for me, so i can get an idea of how much it'd cost. like would you get 130 500GR cakes & 80 200GR cakes and 1,000 shells or what do you normally do to make a show last 20-22 min? if you mix and match shells, 200 & 500GR cakes or if you use all 500gr or all 200gr or all shells or any combination of the 3. and what time limit (in your opinion) should i not be under or over?

[Pyropug]

about how many fireworks would you use for a show that is about 20-22 min. in length? doesn't have to be exact, just ball park it for me, so i can get an idea of how much it'd cost. like would you get 130 500GR cakes & 80 200GR cakes and 1,000 shells or what do you normally do to make a show last 20-22 min? if you mix and match shells, 200 & 500GR cakes or if you use all 500gr or all 200gr or all shells or any combination of the 3. and what time limit (in your opinion) should i not be under or over?

That much product in that amount of time would be overkill and be Sky puke.

Are you hand or electric firing?
How many stations?
Average cake is about 20-30 sec long. Look to create some kind of design, not how much can I put up in the sky at one time. You want layers, ground effects, medium breaking and high breaking fireworks together. Zipper cakes with nice 9 shot or noab breaking over the top, or a good 500g fountain with a fan cake or comets going off over top, stuff like this. IMO fireworks are most impressive when artistry is involved, not just random shooting off. Often less is more.

[Icooclast]

That much product in that amount of time would be overkill and be Sky puke.

Are you hand or electric firing?
How many stations?
Average cake is about 20-30 sec long. Look to create some kind of design, not how much can I put up in the sky at one time. You want layers, ground effects, medium breaking and high breaking fireworks together. Zipper cakes with nice 9 shot or noab breaking over the top, or a good 500g fountain with a fan cake or comets going off over top, stuff like this. IMO fireworks are most impressive when artistry is involved, not just random shooting off. Often less is more.

i wasn't meaning i was going to use that much, was just giving an example. and i'm not sure what kind of fireworks i'm gonna use, yet. or when this will take place. something always gets in my way and cancels my plans. i am hoping one day, then i'll have all my questions answered and just have to look here to review them and dot the i's and cross the t's

[Bazerk]

Well I have done exactly that and I dont believe it was sky puke. Here is a link to my 2017 4th of July that happened to be around 22 mins long. Let me know what you think.


https://youtu.be/qgMveezbT7A

[Mattp]

Well, skies the limit really.. and budget.. lol. Really need to visualize what you want to do.. and time out each item. It is alot of planning involved. But in reality you could do a single platform show, with one cake going off at a time overlapping.. if each cake is average 30 seconds long.. and you wanted a 20 minute show.. your looking at around 40-50 cakes.. my problem is everytime i see a cool effect i say. " i want that".. and i end up with alot of stuff, way over budget, and not enough time to set it all up.. lol

[Icooclast]

sadly; i won't have the use of pro items, but maybe one year, in time. lol

[Rick_In_Tampa]

My show last year was just over 15 minutes long. I used 42 cases which amounted to 124 - 500G cakes, 88 - 200G cakes, and 240 mortars. As Bazerk said, far from sky puke.

This year my show will be 15 min, 30 sec long. I'll be using 53 cases which amount to 122 - 500G cakes, 0 - 200G cakes, and 140 different special effects like slices, flame pots, comets, strobes, etc., and 240 mortars.

Don't have the You Tube link handy, but my channel is called "Pyro in Tampa" if you're interested in taking a look at my show from last year.

[rkmcdon]

I used to do 15-20 minute displays in my backyard for the block. Many felt it ran long (this was before i started wiring and eliminating black sky, so take that with a grain of salt). Now i wire and shoot for 10-12 minutes.

I start with ground effects for about 2-3 minutes that build to a "mini finale" which includes the first of the 500g cakes. I then have a center stage with chained 500g cakes, fused so that one starts as the prior one finishes. I then have 2 other stages that are a combo of 500g and 200g cakes. My final stage involves some mortars in the back. They don't start until about midway through the center stage. The 4 stages form a diamond with Main stage front center and mortars rear center.

I watch videos on different cakes and try to get side stage cakes that compliment the main stage cake that they are timed with.

For your overall time, i break down my show into 3 stages. Opener, Main event and finale. I add up my cake times factoring in how i plan to wire them to get the length of each stage. Wire them so Opener and main overlap and mentioned above and main flows into the build up/finale. I buy may cakes to meet my stage and overall time requirements.

There is a lot of time and work involve, including:
1. Watching videos to determine which cakes you want and what compliments
2. Gathering cake times (some websites list their cake times, others you can get with a google search and some you have to watch a video and time).
3. Calculating proper timing for the sequence you have in mind
4. Attaching the cakes to boards
5. Fusing your cakes and runners between stages if you use that method

Electronic firing systems make this easier and more precise (or so they tell me as this year or next will likely be my first time to use a firing system) if you plan to go that route

Hope that helps

[Icooclast]

I used to do 15-20 minute displays in my backyard for the block. Many felt it ran long (this was before i started wiring and eliminating black sky, so take that with a grain of salt). Now i wire and shoot for 10-12 minutes.

I start with ground effects for about 2-3 minutes that build to a "mini finale" which includes the first of the 500g cakes. I then have a center stage with chained 500g cakes, fused so that one starts as the prior one finishes. I then have 2 other stages that are a combo of 500g and 200g cakes. My final stage involves some mortars in the back. They don't start until about midway through the center stage. The 4 stages form a diamond with Main stage front center and mortars rear center.

I watch videos on different cakes and try to get side stage cakes that compliment the main stage cake that they are timed with.

For your overall time, i break down my show into 3 stages. Opener, Main event and finale. I add up my cake times factoring in how i plan to wire them to get the length of each stage. Wire them so Opener and main overlap and mentioned above and main flows into the build up/finale. I buy may cakes to meet my stage and overall time requirements.

There is a lot of time and work involve, including:
1. Watching videos to determine which cakes you want and what compliments
2. Gathering cake times (some websites list their cake times, others you can get with a google search and some you have to watch a video and time).
3. Calculating proper timing for the sequence you have in mind
4. Attaching the cakes to boards
5. Fusing your cakes and runners between stages if you use that method

Electronic firing systems make this easier and more precise (or so they tell me as this year or next will likely be my first time to use a firing system) if you plan to go that route

Hope that helps

this helps a lot. as does everyone else's posts.

i want mine to be as great as you guys' but i know it won't be my first time out, so i'll have to settle for great "for us" so to speak.

[Kenny East]

I usually do about a 20 minute show, using about 500 consumer shells, 30 500gram cakes, maybe 30 200 gram cakes, 50 roman candles...

144 3" shells, 96 2.5" shells, a couple class b cakes... Maybe about 75 mines/comets and a few color specific finale boxes.

[MontanaMike]

Our show last year ran just over 18 minutes. We used 38 cases of 500g and 2 cases of 200g for a total of about 100 cakes, plus a buttload of roman candles (all set off at once) four "wheels" and 184 mortars. We're planning similar numbers this year except we've doubled the number of 200g cakes.

Last year was our first time using the roman candles. We had about 120 of them. I was intending for them to be kind of a "quiet interlude" part of the show but they wound up being quite the highlight. One reason was, we positioned them closer to the crowd than the cakes and mortars, so they had more of a wow factor. The four spinning wheels are kind of a tradition in our show and they go off right before the finale mortars. The crowd loves them.

Your first show will probably have a problem here and there as you learn the ins and outs of electronic firing. Just make sure you double check everything and follow the directions, with the most important step being a dry run of your system with no fireworks attached.

After that first time, you will notice your show will get better by leaps and bounds, as ours has. This will be our fourth year with the Cobra system and third year using case-lot fireworks. My only gripe is there's only one Fourth of July per year!

[Icooclast]

Our show last year ran just over 18 minutes. We used 38 cases of 500g and 2 cases of 200g for a total of about 100 cakes, plus a buttload of roman candles (all set off at once) four "wheels" and 184 mortars. We're planning similar numbers this year except we've doubled the number of 200g cakes.

Last year was our first time using the roman candles. We had about 120 of them. I was intending for them to be kind of a "quiet interlude" part of the show but they wound up being quite the highlight. One reason was, we positioned them closer to the crowd than the cakes and mortars, so they had more of a wow factor. The four spinning wheels are kind of a tradition in our show and they go off right before the finale mortars. The crowd loves them.

Your first show will probably have a problem here and there as you learn the ins and outs of electronic firing. Just make sure you double check everything and follow the directions, with the most important step being a dry run of your system with no fireworks attached.

My only gripe is there's only one Fourth of July per year!

not true: EVERY holiday is a fireworks holiday if you want to argue the point. we're always celebrating something and that's what fireworks are for: celebrating. besides, i don't think we could afford more than 1 or 2 days a year, nor have enough time in the day or it'd be like politics: they start next campeign when the current one ends. (or so it seems) so, you wouldn't have enough time for the planning or the execution. nor enough money for anything. not to forget: always gotta one up yourself the next show. kinda hard to do that if you're always doing shows, unless you change locations on a pretty big level.

think of it this way: there's (in no order) veterans day, memorial day, the 4th and new year's. 4 holidays for fireworks are accepted. just so happens that more people expect A LOT more fireworks for their collection and for their city's show on the fourth. and understandably so. until then, here's what kept me going through my school years "summer has to come eventually, not matter how long it seems"

[MontanaMike]

All good points, but the bottom line is, around here, fireworks are only legal on the days of July 4 and December 31, and it's no fun (for me at least) lighting fireworks when it's below freezing outside so.... one day a year it is, for us!

[Icooclast]

All good points, but the bottom line is, around here, fireworks are only legal on the days of July 4 and December 31, and it's no fun (for me at least) lighting fireworks when it's below freezing outside so.... one day a year it is, for us!

yeah, i keep forgetting not everywhere overlooks those rules for the holidays like here.

[fatcat]

For what it's worth, we do a neighborhood show and try to limit it to 15 min max. Don't start til 9 pm. Have found that most folks start to get bored after that amount of time and those with younger kids like to get home and get the kiddies to bed and calm their pet dogs and cats down. Having said that we use 350 and 500 gram cakes only and some artillery shells. Both hand fire and use an electrical system for the last few shells and the artillery shells . Use the philosophy that always have something in the air. End the show with a few of the better 500 gram cakes along with a couple of racks fast fused with quality canister shells (Ex-cals or their equivalent). Costs us about a grand and everybody seems to have a good time. This especially works when the 4th is on a weekday and some folks have to go to work the next day.

[N3OQO]

I've been a drummer all my life, and this question is like a drum solo. Time it out in your head, make it short, sweet, dynamic. Start off with some ground stuff, and transition into some aerials, slowly, then move into increasingly bigger cakes, 200 gram, 350, 500 and then into racks of shells and then finish with some quick fused racks for the finale. 15-20 minutes max, unlike a drum solo that should really be no longer than 5-10 minutes, but also like a drum solo keep up the rhythm and beat. My Utube channel is Steel City Pyrocrafter btw, and if you watch some of my videos you can see what I mean, most fireworks pros do the same thing.