The baroque style park at St Cloud in Paris is normally a place of calm and tranquility, but it erupted into a deafening celebration of music and explosives. The 18th century cascade there was illuminated by fireworks for two and a half hours, making it the longest firework display in Europe, according to the organisers. Three tonnes of explosives were used in the pyrotechnic extravaganza. The artistic director Jean-Eric Ougier said the park was made for spectacles as was the fashion under Louis XIV, and that is what he wanted to provide again now. The pianist Franois-Ren Duchable was elevated amongst the fireworks on a 12 metre crane at the bottom of the cascade, as he and the piano were surrounded by explosions and smoke, mixing the music and the fireworks physically as well as acoustically. Other spectators were slightly put off by the duration and the size of the spectacle - spreading three and a half tonnes of fireworks out over two hours did mean they were smaller explosions of colour, with most people were standing or seated on the ground for the duration. But with 23,000 tickets sold and a positive reaction to the artistic composition, it goes to shows that when it comes to fireworks, size doesn't matter.
