Grand Fireworks, Pyrotechnic Performance & Machine Art

A delicious blend of film, motion graphics, sound, light and pyrotechnics provided a stunningly visual and entertaining piece of art. It captured the spirit of the festival bringing a fresh contemporary piece of work to the newly developed space in Centenary Square. Dynamically entertaining new work for a new space.

Cardiff Council Events Team have enjoyed working with External Combustion over the past ten years on a series of site specific pieces and The Diving Bell is certainly one of their best to date. It’s a superb show for a family audience full of excitement, suspense, wit and of course spectacular fireworks and effects all mixed with a great soundtrack and stunning video images.

Doug has a passion and creative eye that shines through in his work and has great commitment to his art. I would have no hesitation in recommending External Combustion if you want a high quality, artistic and creative display.

The season received so much positive feedback with many people commenting on the quality of the fireworks as ‘the best they had ever seen’. Your contributions helped us raise the standard of the Council’s cultural offer so once again many thanks.

Thanks, thanks, thanks and thanks again for all your energy and enthusiasm that made the Gainsborough Riverside Festival an outstanding success.

The performance by External Combustion was extremely well received with many comments on the professionalism and spectacular nature of the show.

Over the past 10 years the company have provided some truly memorable performances, providing excellent imaginative performances with value for money.

If you want a company who loves their art and who take huge pride in what they deliver then you can’t do better than External Combustion.

It was a spectacular success, and captivated the 20,000 or so people who saw it. I thought it had a real impact and showed that-with imagination and ingenuity fireworks and music can combine to tell a story.

Not only was the display magnificent, but the truly professional and caring way that you and your team went about preparing the site had a lasting impression on all the senior members of management.

It was a superb show, you are a fantastic team to work with, highly professional and yet you still have that dry sense of humor.

It was fantastic, for the first time ever I felt that the stage pyros, the sculpture and aerial displays at this year’s Reading Festival really added to the visual impact and worked with the show.

…nuclear-scale fireworks.

At the end of her set a crane hauled a gigantic postage stamp fizzing with sparklers, high above the stage. To follow, a fireworks display, as dazzling as the music.

…the fireworks were well worth the wait.

…brilliant fireworks, nice one Doug!

I have received nothing but glowing praise for the end of the festival ‘spectacular’ which I know brought a good deal of pleasure to many people. It was both an artistic and technical masterpiece, with which we were delighted!

“…people seem to have been genuinely exhilarated by the event… ..my personal thanks to you too, for being so focused and easy to work with at a time when I was seriously stressed!

External combustion gave a stunning and spectacular performance for Cardiff’s New Year Eve 2000 event ‘Calennig’. Despite the elements, they produced a performance that was extremely accessible , artistically creative and simply beautiful. As always, it was an highly successful and enjoyable working relationship.

Wonderful show…we really got our moneys worth…

I was impressed by your ambitious vision to create giant millennium bug sculptures that moved and came alive inside a scenery of pyrotechnics. I wanted to say a big ‘Thank You’ for staging a first class show which delighted me personally and the thousands of people who turned out to see your Millennium Bugs.

External combustion were a delight to work with for our centenary May Ball – a very special occasion which required something unique and amazing.

The team were able to work with us to establish new and exciting ideas for this special event, and helped develop these into a final display which was breathtaking and enjoyed by all; it was a true talking point of the event.