The Tales of Solihull Round Table

Fireworks 2009

Saturday the 7th November 2009 came and went with a GREAT BIG BANG.

Carlos from Smooth Radio

The free fireworks display held by Solihull Round Table attracted approximately 4,000 people and raised ~£3,000 for charity. Thank you to all of you who came and made the night so wonderful, the atmosphere was great and Carlos from Smooth Radio really got the crowd going.

6 months ago a very different story was emerging.

Last’s years display proved to be a tipping point for Solihull Round Table and some serious decisions had to be made regarding the future of the display. The amount of charity money raised proved to be very low and the attendance on the night was also poor.

Over the previous few years a variety of marketing and promotion techniques were employed to publicise the event and changes to the format of the evening also were tried.  However the rot was setting in and no matter how hard we tried or whatever we changed the numbers were falling, the costs were going up and the donations to charity were going down. We came to the conclusion that the competition for fireworks in Solihull was too great even for such an established display as the Round Table one.

A new proposal

At a very heated meeting it was clear that something had to change or we would have to cancel fireworks for the first time in over 30 years.  It was agreed that a totally new format would be required which was radically different from previous years. For inspiration we looked to our Round Table colleagues across the country who also put on major displays and took their ideas and made it our own.

The proposal was that we would have a free display, paid for by sponsorship, and by working with Solihull Council would hold it in Tudor Grange park which was a much larger venue that before. In addition we decided to limit costs where ever possible and have the event earlier so that we could attract more people which would also allow them to support their usual fireworks event later in the evening.

A team of tablers was formed who worked to finalise the plans and raise the sponsorship. These volunteers worked extremely hard giving up many days of their own time through meetings with the fire service, the police, the council, sponsors and firework companies – even down to walking around Solihull with placards around their neck’s promoting the event!

A marketing plan was put into place and we pleaded with businesses and the public to help support us and by September we felt that we were in a position to agree to go ahead with the display. From that point onwards the marketing switched gear to promotion and we pushed the event in as many different ways as we felt it was possible to make sure that everyone had the chance to know about it.

The crowd at Fireworks 2009

The results were amazing! Our biggest risk was that no one would show up and the whole event would be a failure, luckily this never happened. We were lucky enough to have wonderful weather which helped entice a huge crowd to the display. Judging from how generously the crowd supported us we can only conclude that they enjoyed the show.

Feedback

I would like to invite your feedback regarding the display in comments below – but please remember that this was a free event, put on by volunteers and that it was a new venture. I invite constructive criticism – but I will delete any personal or offensive remarks.

Thank you again to all of you who supported the event in any way.

Solihull RT.

(Thanks and acknowledgement to Smooth Radio for the photos of the event)