h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

When I was younger, my Dad always used to take us to the Bonfire Night display in Roundhay Park in Leeds. There's an enormous fire, and some of the best fireworks I have ever see - loads of Roman Candles, Rockets, Parachutes amongst others. There's also usually a special display done on a framework - the most memorable was a Dalek shoot out. Best of all, it's free, and very safe.

Good Touch Jeny.

Can we compile a general list of good public events, preferably with some measurements to allow our earstwhile community to make an informed choice ... what is the measurement of a good fireworks display?

How about two measurements...

1. Spectacularity - Units £/second - surely the only meaningul measure of how big and frequent the bangs are. Some simple bands migh be:
>1000 £/s - Incredible ... millennium Sydney and the like.
500 to 1000 £/s - Very big doo. Worth a long journey.
200 to 500 £/s - Good show, with time to say AAAAH and OOOOO lots.
100 to 200 £/s - Worth leaving the pub for, but not for long.
50 to 100 £/s - Futt, sqeak and it's over!
<50 £/s - Your now on your back lawn.

2. Visibility - scale of 1,2, 3 -
1 = you can see everything, even the little ones on the ground;
2 = Only Rockets and Mortars visible;
3 = Only other people's heads visible, don't bother.

To this end:

Cheltenham Racecourse Fireworks - Spectacularity 300£/s, Visibility 2

Any more worth seeing?

On the scale suggested above, the Roundhay Park display in Leeds would probably be

Spectacularity 400£/sec
Visibility 2.5 (if you stand further back on the hill you'll see everything, if you're closer to the front in the crowd then you might miss some low lying stuff)

It's a bit difficult to judge the £/s thing, unless you know how much it cost and how long it went on for. Also there's no guarantee that the same size show will be on at the same place every year.

The best advice I think is just to look around and see what's happening locally. In London, newspapers and magazines (like Time Out) usually print listings of displays that are taking place.

i went to a special one at Alnwick castle (which is only 9 miles away) for the millenium, but it was on jan 6th. It lasted an hour and on your scales it was >£1000/s =3. It was amazing

CK