Riverfire 08'

Yesterday was the start of the week-long River Festival in Brisbane, a celebration of the Brisbane River that the city is named for and runs through the down town area. It is the defining geographical element of the area.

The first night of the festival and the biggest is the River Fire event. Basically it is a small air show and huge fire works display that encompasses the entire city. They were expecting half a million people for the show so Mariana and I walked down to the Botanical Gardens a few hours before to get good seats right on the river. We invited some friends from Pandemic and made a large picnic out of it.

We all sat around, ate, talked, popped open some beer and wine and waited for the 7:00 start of the event scheduled for just after sundown. The area was filling up fast and the river was choked full of sail, motor, and large party boats. Amongst the large office buildings that line the river there are quite a few apartment towers that were full of people partying and enjoying the festival, waiting for the show to begin.

The event is kicked off by an Australian Air Force F-111 making a low level "dump and burn" where it screams in at a couple of hundred feet off the river and dumps fuel out the back while firing the afterburner which makes a giant fire trail out the end of the jet that lights up the sky like daylight and is incredibly loud.

I can't even imagine how much it must cost to run as there are about ten or so fireworks bases in the city that are shot off in coordination with each other. I heard today that the whole show uses 300 tons of fireworks. There were fireworks firing off multiple barges on the river, on the bridges, they were even firing them off of the top of the sky scrapers in CBD. I was in awe of the size of the show, there were fireworks going off in front, to the sides, behind, and above us. It was the most amazing pyrotechnical display I have ever seen. The buidlings were full of people and camera flashes were sparkling along the skyline which added to the moment. After almost a year here, the good times and the bad, it was one of those nights that makes it all worth it and reminds you why you are here.