Camelot '09

For the past few years I have had the privilege of putting on a fireworks show for my sister's
community of Camelot down at Lake of the Ozarks. What started out as two guys with flares
lighting off a few mortars and cakes has grown into an electronically fired show with a lot of
cakes and over two hundred shells. While still just a 1.4 show, it has become quite the draw for
those living in and around Camelot.

This year promised to be the biggest and best yet. Since the 4th fell on a Saturday Camelot
held their party on the 4th and I had to compete with countless of other shows going on
around the Lake, most of them much bigger than mine. While I planned on a spectacular 4th of
July show it wasn't to be. The weather was miserable, with rain and storms off and on during
the day. I was late getting there because our creek was flooded and we couldn't set up on the
field because of the threat of rain. We managed to get everything set up a half hour late only to
have the rain start falling again. At that point, with the crowd leaving, I decided to pull the plug
on the show. What promised to be a great display turned quickly into a disaster. Jennifer had
to field calls all night as to what happened and why there was no show. The community was
mad, those who came to watch the show were mad, and Jennifer was more than mad.

The show did go off the next day without a hitch. Only a few cakes failed to fire but it was not
noticeable in the parade of fire and color that danced across the sky. The show only lasted 15
minutes but it was by far the best one I have ever done. It was all fired electrically and nothing
was hand fired except for the finale because the fuses failed due to the moisture. Despite the
beauty of the show I have serious doubts that I will be asked back after this year, but it has
been a fun run. I just wish I had gotten video to remember my final and best shoot at Camelot.

Here is Dale and Joe
helping me set up and fuse
in the shed. Despite the
sunshine playing out across
the floor, outside there was
thunder and lightning, along
with a Tornado Watch for the
area. Why Camelot didn't
cancel their party at that
time, I have no idea, but the
show was a go at this point.

I had three panels with seventeen cakes on each panel. We had 190 mortar tubes set up,
along with almost 100 cardboard tubes set up for the final. The final also consisted of 25
cakes and thirty single shot tubes. There were also two large 9 tube shots outside the panels
and three other cakes. All in all it was about $1000 worth of fireworks sitting out on the
ground. These pictures are of the setup on Sunday as the setup Saturday didn't happen until
after dark and was quickly covered because of rain.

This was my first show that I fired by electric matches. I dipped them myself and fused everything
together with them. As you can see it is a rats nest of wires and e-matches. Everything here is
homemade, the firing panel and slats were made by someone on Pyro Universe and I bought all of
this for $150, a price that wouldn't even come close to buying the material involved in building this
system, let alone the time and expertise that went into making this firing system. It worked great,
despite the fact that I only had half the voltage I was suppose to have to use it. I can't wait until I am
able to use it again, if not at Camelot then at one of the MoPyro shoots.

And here is the aftermath the next
day. I had quite the mess to clean
up but I got it done then was on my
way home, already planning out
the next show, if there is one. The
only regret is I have no video. This
year I have bought a video camera
and next shoot like this I will
definitely have video.