On the 2nd November we held our 13th Annual Fireworks Display, bringing back this much-loved event to Scout Park and welcoming hundreds of guests from our community. The Explorers from our Publicity Team have written this blog to show you what goes on behind the scenes of this entirely volunteer-run event!

After a 5-year hiatus, the Wild Wolf ESU Fireworks Display returned at full scale for 2024. At 5.30pm on Friday 1st November, Explorers, Leaders and Old Wolves (ex-members) gathered for a pre-event briefing, kicking off a weekend of hard work. However, preparations had actually started long before this in weekly sessions, team meetings and additional prep. The Leaders had started planning for the display a whole year earlier, giving us plenty of time to work with our groups and make sure everything ran smoothly on the night!

As Fireworks weekend started, we split into our teams, starting to check off some of our long list of jobs. The Creative team were painting signs and decorating the Park, whilst the Production team made sure all the power, lighting, and sound for the event was achieved flawlessly. Meanwhile, the Set Up team began putting up gazebos and made sure the Park was safe, the Catering team began cooking for all the volunteers, and the Publicity team began taking behind the scenes content for the Wild Wolf ESU social media and event video! After a well needed rest on Friday night, we continued to press on during Saturday morning, getting the Park ready and building that unique Wild Wolf ESU Fireworks atmosphere. Once the Park was fully set up, we had another briefing and split into our teams for during the event, to prepare the food and ensure all the stalls and activities were ready to go once gates opened.

At 5.30pm on Saturday, the event officially began! The gates opened and flocks of families entered the Park, visiting stalls, buying food and snacks, and enjoying the spirit of the event. After a couple hours of fun, everyone made their way down to the viewing area, where the crowds were waiting with anticipation for our fireworks display to begin! However, whilst everyone was finding their spot in the hubbub, our Publicity team were setting up their tripods and cameras as well as weaving their way through the crowd ready to capture our sparkling fireworks display. Meanwhile our Stewards made sure all the guests were in the right place, while the Production team got ready control the lighting – and of course, our Pyrotechnics team were hard at work preparing for the launch.

Boom! At 7:45pm our fireworks were off! Stunning blues, reds and greens lit up the sky, some shooting straight up and sparkling into pirouettes of gold while others whirled in spirals throughout the air in all directions. There were plenty of oohs and aahs from the crowd – and from the volunteers!

After a wonderful event, the guests began to leave, but this was only the start of a night of pack down for the volunteers and Explorers. We took down gazebos, washed up cooking equipment, and cleaned up the Park. After a long evening, the clock struck midnight and we settled down in the hall for the final briefing of the day, which included (as per tradition) the first showing of the full event video, which you can watch below!

On Sunday morning, we all had a much deserved lie-in before breakfast and our morning briefing where everyone was assigned their tasks for the final part of the weekend. We quickly began with the jobs, which mainly consisted of taking down any lights and gazebos left up from the night before and generally tidying up Scout Park, including lots of litter picking! Our Explorers and Leaders were able to completely pack down and clear everything up by midday which meant it was time for our last parade of the event, which was a lovely way to end the weekend.

We had a great time putting together this event, and it was amazing to see the results of everyone’s dedication and teamwork. A huge, huge thank you to everyone who supported our 13th Annual Fireworks Display – without our adult volunteers, and our guests, we wouldn’t be able to put on such a spectacular event. Now the planning starts for next year…