It's not just Katy Perry who loves a firework, and Guy Fawkes Night this Saturday celebrates a long time love of things that go boom! The event which is Britain's biggest annual firework festival will see skies lighting up around the country but on the off chance that doesn't fully sate your appetite for explosions, here's a shortlist of other festivals where you can see things go with a bang!
Sumidagawa Firework Festival - Japan
During a Japanese summer, at any given moment, there is usually at least one firework festival going on somewhere. The Sumidagawa firework festival has been a Tokyo tradition for almost 300 years and was originally the battleground for two rival guilds of firework makers to compete and show the people of Tokyo who made the best kabooms. Today the festival boasts some of the best displays in the world, including fireworks designed to make complicated shapes in the night sky such as Pikachu and Hello Kitty (see 1:23 below).
4th of July – United States
American pop culture takes pride in celebrating 4th of July (see Kelis, see Aimee Mann, see Soundgarden, see Bruce Springsteen...) and the day is also one of the best-known firework associated festivals in the world despite only being celebrated by a single country. One of the highlights is the Macy’s annual firework display over New York’s Hudson River. Over 75,000 lbs of pyrotechnics are used to make the display, which attracts over 2 million spectators every year.
Chinese New Year – Hong Kong
Chinese New Year is more closely associated with firecrackers than fireworks in mainland China, so the place to go if you want to see the sky light up in January is Hong Kong. The government banned firecrackers due to fire concerns, so as a compromise they sponsor a MASSIVE fireworks display in Victoria Harbour.
Every nationality apart from Chinese New Year
The changing of Dec 31st to Jan 1st is the biggest shared worldwide celebration on planet earth, every year thousands of tonnes of gunpowder are sent skyward across the globe. The Portuguese island of Medeira is famous for its firework displays. The amount of ordinance they let off on December 31st 2006 earned a Guinness world record for largest firework display with 66,326 fireworks being set off in a single display.
And, last but not least, for those of you gearing up your own gunpowder plots for Guy Fawkes night on Saturday here’s a little video of some home-grown fiery festivities.
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