Arches, Drops & Races
We were back in Blackpool for 3rd consecutive year to install these 2 x 750 drops. This year they wanted us to pull the strings so lucky for me Colin Gledhill from Roys Balloons volunteered (after fish n chips with mushy peas). See previous installs here. AWARDS: Great evening at the @BIBAs2017! Thank you for […]
This 250 balloon drop at Village Underground took me just 2 hours to install thanks to help from the friendly genie lift driver. The drop became part of the Rex Orange County performance. You might find a photo of me in a Genie Lift here. @rexorangecounty with my Apricot Princess 💫 A post shared by […]
Whilst driving around Manchester looking for Audacious Church I was expecting a small Cathedral but this place was more like the O2. I think they’ll go for more balloons next year as a 500 drop was slightly lost in such a big area – but still looks cool. Thank you so much for setting up […]
Here’s our 3rd drop at The Roundhouse in Camden for a charity event to fund a primary school. We attached our net across the Hex-Truss as usual and this time the 2 pull lines were run to the control desk on the balcony. We were asked to pull the strings and drop the balloons so […]
Here’s my first drop at the Barbican Centre in London. This was 1000 balloons held back stage and you can see part of the drop in action in the tweets below:
This New Years events all went smoothly (a bit like last year). I had more work in London this year including the above photo from The Hippodrome in Leicester Square. You may be interested to know that at the turn of the 19th century live animals were thrown from this balcony. I found the best […]
Here’s another drop at Old Billingsgate. This one was more difficult to rig as there was no simple route for the pull line. The 4 banners under the net were held in place with 4 steel cables which were sharp to touch. I didn’t want the pull line going anywhere near these so I took […]
Here’s a good example of how a 250 balloon drop looks. This one was installed at Stafford University. My ladders reached this ceiling so no need for hefty genie equipment.
We were back at The Apollo for wicked 10. This show just keeps running and amazing to think we’ve been installing these drops since the very 1st year. It’s been like a balloon drop apprenticeship, we’ve got slowly better and it’s good to use the skills in other theatres.
Following last years fun in Blackpool we were back again this year with a repeat order at The Bibas 2016. I took an extra crew member this time (there were 3 of us) because of the large table centres. I wanted more help at that difficult moment when the net rises and it swings over the […]
Roundhouse 10th Birthday Celebrations image © John Williams Before installing the Google drop last December I worked closely with The Roundhouse in Camden to match their strict safety standards. They must have been please as they called me back to help celebrate their 10th Birthday celebrations. No need for a site visit as I already knew […]
Here’s our second shopping mall drop for Liberty Shopping Centre in Romford. This one was to celebrate Valentines day and 200 of the 1000 balloons had vouchers stuffed inside. At this venue there was no balcony available so we filled the net at ground level and chain stitched after we’d filled it. Liberty owned their […]