This weekend (6th November) Harrow Fireworks reach quite a milestone since their humble beginnings, it’s their 10th birthday!
To celebrate the occasion, Harrow Online spoke with David Silber, the director and producer of the show since it started back in 2012.
David said: We have made it, is our 10-year anniversary and what a decade it’s been!. Before we go any further I would just like to thank everyone who has supported us for the last 10 years, thank you very much this event would be nothing without you.
We know we’re not perfect, and the fireworks do sometimes start a little bit later than planned, however they have always gone off with a bang!
Looking back on our first year in Stanmore Cricket Club, I didn’t know what to expect and we only thought that we get a couple of hundred people then instead we got thousands, it was at that point that at our team and knew you that we needed a fireworks display in Harrow again.
Some of the councillors and even one of the MPs in Harrow helped get this event up and running. However, is was due to the extremely dedicated staff that worked in the council that Harrow fireworks display owes much of its thanks too. Mainly one extremely dedicated person in particular that actually shares the same name as mine “Dave Corby” What a legend! And a special thanks that go out to this fantastic Council officer and his team.
Without them, I don’t think this event would have been given the green light.
Looking back at one of our first meetings, I remember talking about what location in Harrow we were going to use for the event, and ruling out each park one by one until we eventually settled on using Bryon Park recreation ground.
I remember the first time I ever got invited into the council offices, seeing some of the employees and officers working and me thinking that this is all very overwhelming and I cannot believe that i’m here!
After we had finished ruling out and choosing the park we wanted to operate in, the amount of times that I actually went down to the park started planning and also drawing out diagram after diagram realising that this wasn’t just a pipe dream anymore, that it was actually going to be a reality in the next few months, and I’m the one that has to plan it, produce it, execute it and market it.
At that point I can’t really tell you if I was more nervous or more excited about the opportunity that laid in front of me, and potentially the future of the event for the next 10 years from that day onward. I think the word that I would best used to sum up the experience is probably daunting.
As a digital marketer I knew that the marketing side of things wouldn’t be as hard as I imagined it to be, but I was pretty confident in the skills that I had but I just didn’t know how receptive Harrow would be to a firework display, neither did I have any data to go on from past events that had been in that park or had been in Harrow before.
So at this point I really was winging it when it came to marketing and hoping for the best.
This weekend (6th November) @harrowfireworks reach quite a milestone since their humble beginnings, it’s their 10th birthday! We can’t wait 🎇🎆 pic.twitter.com/SXcJBiNXcr
— Harrow Online (@harrowonline) November 2, 2021
The reason I wanted to do the fireworks display was because I was actually involved with another company’s fireworks displays previously for the last 2 years. During my time at university, I was the entrainments officer for the students union for 3 years straight, so I must have done a good job, at least I would like to think so.
As the day drew closer for the first Harrow Fireworks, I obviously kept worrying about ticket sales day in day out that’s all I can think of and how much money I am going to lose if I don’t sell these tickets and why aren’t people buying and trying to study as much analytical data as I possibly could.
Then it came to the event day, and man was I stressed! – ticket sales haven’t been doing that well plus I was the one that had to arrange all of the contractors and everything to make sure the event went off without a hitch and that everyone was where they were meant to be.
On the event day one story in particular really does standout between me and my management team and some of my closest friends.
As I was renting the park from the council, one concern was the state of the field after the event. And I had been told that when the field in the park gets wet if a vehicle drives on it, it may might cause a hole in the field which would therefore be costly to fix.
So to every contractor and vendor I had were asked to sign a contract with terms and conditions that they had to abide by, and they signed those contracts with no problem because they were confident in their skills when driving a vehicle on grass, however I was not!
What you have to take into account is that 10 years ago I was booking in all the food contractors, stands and everything else myself and didn’t have a catering manager to deal with that. We managed to get all of the catering units on the path going around the park and I was feeling quite good as I knew that I was preserving any potential catastrophe when it comes to the actual land.
However, about an hour before we were due to open a trader arrived late and then drove all the way across the grass with his car and got stuck! at that point I think I almost blew a gasket in front of my management team that were walking over to me, one of my best mates that I’d called in to help me out.
They will never let me forget the situation now! Thankfully, they successfully managed to remove the vehicle off the grass without any damage.
I think the reason that I was so stressed was because I was so worried about every aspect of the event from the health and safety of the event to the funfair making its share of money, to the food vendors making their share of money not forgetting the customers coming to see the event having a really good time!
When it came to running on the night everything went off without a hitch we were all extremely happy and every single person who is involved in the event and had a part of the play, knew exactly what to do and how to carry themselves and that made me so proud.
When it came to the finance of the event, in the end we didn’t lose any money but we barely broke even and I have to say at the time I was very disappointed.
We have been doing this for 10 years this year. Over that time, I’ve had my up’s and downs and my far share for both wins and losses.
With each passing year, there can be more challenges and new people’s that we have to deal with because the old ones move on to different things.
With new people, comes new policy, different objectives and having to learn the best way to work together.
Organising the fireworks has got much more difficult over the years and this year has been exceptionally hard.
I have been thinking about hanging up my hat, and making this my last year, I can’t say for sure…
BUT ON TO THIS YEAR….
Harrow Fireworks Display, Saturday 6th November 2021 (celebration of culture)
CELEBRATING OUR 10TH BIRTHDAY
Harrow Fireworks Display, Saturday 6th November 2021 from 12 – 3 pm FREE after is charged, Byron Park, HA3 7QX (celebration of Culture)
The gates will be open from 12pm, and WE ARE FREE TILL 3 pm, then paid after. Our Fireworks display will kick off at approximately 7.45pm, Tickets available at https://www.harrowfireworks.co.uk/ for up to 40% OFF RRP. This year we have a maximum capacity, and we recommend you buy your tickets online. However if you are able to buy on the gate. IT WILL BE CASH ONLY. We are supporting the ideals of #saveourcash and our proud to do so.
Our fireworks display and festival event is celebrating OUR TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY! And for that reason we have put even more budget behind our firework display which is already one of the best for miles around.
What you can expect at Harrow display and festival is a mash up between the classic Guy Fawkes Night celebration and Diwali festival of light. For 2021 we have the following:
1. A massive twenty minute musical fireworks display
2. Our pre comedy and magic show with fizz 3. Kids entertainment
4. Our full size funfair
5. Our world food zone
6. Our fully licensed bar
7. Diwali dancers
8. Face painting and henna tattoos
9. Free entry from 12pm-3pm
You can expect the fireworks display event to last for a full 20 minutes, and as our theme, this year is MOVIE MUSIC, and you can look forward to some fantastic and intriguing surprises along the way! its not just a fireworks display, we pride ourselves on giving families and our community a truly unique experience.
So if you are celebrating Guy Fawkes, Diwali, a birthday, or just want to see the sky light up in an array of beautiful colour, come down and see exactly why we are the best at what we do.
Harrow fireworks display will bring the same class of entertainment and enjoyment as it has bought to the community for the last 10 years we aim to put smiles on faces and dazzle you with oo’s and wows from our massive fireworks display.
Our fireworks display is set out to be more of a cultural festival more than a standard fireworks display. We want people at our event to celebrate all occasions like Diwali, bonfire night, eid and anyone celebrating a special occasion.
Harrow opens up its arms to all the surrounding burrows including Brent and Wembley, Barnet, Hillingdon, Ruislip and rest of North West London. To experience the snap crackle and pop that only harrow fireworks can offer.
We look forward to seeing you all on Saturday 6th of November and remember we are a free event up until 3pm!.
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