The pyro display was the culmination of months of hard work for Karen Haddon, events director at Le Maitre and her team.
"The size of the task cannot be underestimated. The arch itself is the longest unsupported roof structure in the world, and at 133m high and with a 7m diameter lattice arch, we knew this was never going to be straightforward. Add to that the wind and British weather in general and you have a pyrotechnician's worst nightmare. The project required an enormous amount of planning and close cooperation with various bodies, including Wembley Stadium and Brent Council, who were both excellent and really professional to work with on the numerous health and safety issues," says Haddon.
"There were plenty of matters to contend with, for instance the arch itself had nowhere we could actually bolt directly onto, so we needed to have huge brackets specially designed and constructed for the 38 firing positions required. Our highly skilled pyrotechnicians had to attend special working at heights courses and liaise closely with the Wembley Stadium rope access team on the rigging. And then there was the question of the actual firing, for which we had to invest in state of the art technology.
"We ran a trial demonstration from the arch on 21 April which went extremely well and we felt very comfortable that the evening would go according to plan. We were delighted to have been chosen to fire the event and would love to have the opportunity to do it again for any other sporting or concert events."
(Jim Evans)
