The shoot was broken down into four sections. The lance work and "the bull" where in section one closest to the audience. The two lance work pieces done by the Adans were of the Adan and Kellner's logos. The bull made of paper mache bull with framework all around it. Attached to the framework where driver driving wheels. Section two had the roman candles and 3" shells.Section three had the rocket barrages, mini girandolas and large girandolas. Section three also had the 4", 5" and 6" inch shells. Section four was way up on top of the hill and further back. This section contained our 8", 10" and 12" shells.

Our crew arrived sunday night and we started setup on monday morning. Organization of crew, unloading of fireworks, site survey and layout, tracking down people in charge and general chaos was the order of the day. When we went to look at were we were going to put our large guns in the ground we met the previous nights display company trying to retrieve their mortars buried in the ground. The ground was exclusively clay and the water table was about two feet in the ground. Most of their mortars were full of water and some actually became permantly embedded into the ground. We decided to wait until the last moment to put our large mortars in. The Adans worked on the set pieces by attaching drivers on the wheels and drivers to girandolas.

Early Tuesday, we put stakes in the ground, attached the roman candles, e-matched and then covered to protect from rain. We started setting racks for 3", 4" and 6" shells. There were some loose 6" pipe which we had to arrange a backhoe to dig three trenches for. 4, 5 and 6" Shells were dropped and quickmatched together and covered to protect from rain. Launching poles for the large girandolas were put into the ground. The Adans continued finishing off rockets, girandolas adding spolettes to 6" shells and direction of layout. A couple of tons of sand was purchased for the large mortars on the hill. After a long day we had made progress, wednesday morning would see putting up lance work, the bull, setting large mortars, running cable and testing the firing system and then show time.

After two long days of set-up we were greeted wednesday morning, the day of the shoot with our display under several FEET of water. We dove into the water and started pulling product and see what we could save. As we were pulling product we were instructed to leave the area or else we wouldn't be able to leave. Some sort of dam had broken and the water was heading our way. The water started rising by the foot so we jumped into the truck with the last couple handfuls of shells and headed to higher ground. At the top of the hill we watched as our shoot site and fireworks were covered in water. Then we watched as the water raged through the consumer vending tent and saw boxes of fireworks flowing out the back side of the tent. As we left the shoot site we didn't even know if the PGI convention would continue much less for us to do a show. Wednesday night we got the word that the show was rescheduled for thursday night so a very early morning in store for us.

Thursday started (not so) bright and early. What started out as three days to set up we now had to do in one day. We first checked the condition of our fireworks and discarded the ruin fireworks. We started with the position closest to the audience and worked backwards. Wherever we stopped that would be the show. We split up the crew and set to work.The bull was put into place along with lance pieces. The adans worked on assembling these. Roman Candles, 3" racks and shells went next. 4",5" and 6"'s went back in the mortars. Some of our crew went on top of the hill and with a major effort along with a backhoe put the 8", 10" and 12"'s in the ground. Rockets, small girandolas and large girandolas went into place. Wireless systems went into place and lots of cable. A huge thank you goes out to Dave Lavoie of Pyromate for helping us out with cable, modules and advice on what we need. So we worked all the way up to show time. Williams Adan who choreographed the show got into the pilot seat and we awaited our turn to set the show off. It was very exciting to see the results of all your work even amid set backs! Thanks to the Kellner crew, The Adans, Dave Lavoie, Mike Romano, Mr and Mrs Howard Fry, seth Fry, Chris McCall, John Doty and anybody else that we may be forgetting!

Thanks to wild wili at pyrouniverse.com for this video. Check it out!

Kellners from Willi Wild on Vimeo.