This years 2012 Brisbane Riverfire date had been moved a few weeks forward from previous years, apparently so as to coincide with school holidays and to be a big finish to the Brisbane Festival. It was a big weekend all up with Parklife music festival on at the Botanic Gardens the same Saturday as Riverfire, and Monday being the new public holiday.
Direct link to playlist http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAcODj1sWkRVSbxRpOcOxE2D4Qu7TDOUL
The afternoon aerial displays this year featured the F/A-18 Super Hornets, ARH Tiger helicopters and the Black Hawk Helicopters. The first fly over by the two Hornets personally gave me a real buzz as they screamed directly toward our highrise before pulling some serious Gs at the last minute to fly straight up the face of the building and into a vertical climb high into the sky. Hair raising stuff. The subsequent fly overs were still awesome but they didn't seem to get as close as the initial one, but maybe it just felt that way because the first took us by surprise. I only captured video of the subsequent fly overs so I can't compare.
The twin Tiger choppers look like the kind of tactical airborne killing machines that would strike adequate amounts of terror into any opponent. Thankfully that was not their task today. They flew up the river before performing some very tightly synchronised manoeuvres. I'm not sure if it was planned but there was a cruise ship heading directly toward the downdraft wake of one of the choppers hovering close to the water and so the passengers on the deck copped their own special show there.
The Black Hawks got a bit more elevated than the Tigers as they flew up the river buzzing our building at a 28th floor level close enough to see the pilot, and to feel like you could reach out and touch them. Later on they repeated the feat with a night run complete with search spotlights lighting up the river below.
Then came the fireworks. The start was signalled by one final flyover with the Hornets dropping ribbons of flares across the night sky reminescent of the now defunct dump-and-burn manoeuvre the F-111s used to perform before they were retired a couple of years back.
The Story Bridge display was as impressive as usual, with the 'fire curtain' making a repeat appearance drawing many 'oohs' and 'ahhs' from the crowds.
But I felt the view up the river to the Kangaroo point cliffs was more impressive this year compared to previous. You could really notice the split-second timing of the same fireworks expoloding in synchronicity above the different locations along the river and over the city. I found that the addition of split-colour fireworks (a first this year?) really added an extra wow factor too.
Punters raving away to Parklife at the Botanic Gardens Riverstage didn't miss out either with the fireworks coinciding with the performance of one of the headline acts, Nero. Here's a video from one such excited punter.
I'll leave you with some comments posted on a Facebook friend's page that made me stop and think. Here's Lawrence English's ( https://www.facebook.com/lawrencepenglish/posts/10151110128819262 ) thought provoking take on the afternoon military display:
"Today we wage war upon ourselves. [...] I'm struck by a sense of decadence in a people, who can celebrate a city with the machinery and sounds of terror that have destroyed so many other similar cities around the world. We revel in a bombastic dream of war that would make others cower. How lucky we are, and most of us don't even realise it. Happy Riverfire, let them eat cake. "
I do recall having conflicting emotions of awe, and guilty sorrow/shame at one stage during the display for the same reasons. But the awe won out as the guilt was quickly suppressed. Maybe it was just my mind pleasing my hedonistic side.
Lawrence's comments also reminded me of a conversation I had with a sales assistant in the city on Friday before Riverfire when the Hornets had been rehearsing their flyovers. I asked if she had heard the planes today and she commented yes, and it had given her quite a scare as she is from Israel and the sound of a screaming bomber overhead has different connotations there. She had to remind herself that she was in Australia, where things like that don't happen.
Happy Riverfire indeed.
Direct link to playlist http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAcODj1sWkRVSbxRpOcOxE2D4Qu7TDOUL
The afternoon aerial displays this year featured the F/A-18 Super Hornets, ARH Tiger helicopters and the Black Hawk Helicopters. The first fly over by the two Hornets personally gave me a real buzz as they screamed directly toward our highrise before pulling some serious Gs at the last minute to fly straight up the face of the building and into a vertical climb high into the sky. Hair raising stuff. The subsequent fly overs were still awesome but they didn't seem to get as close as the initial one, but maybe it just felt that way because the first took us by surprise. I only captured video of the subsequent fly overs so I can't compare.
The twin Tiger choppers look like the kind of tactical airborne killing machines that would strike adequate amounts of terror into any opponent. Thankfully that was not their task today. They flew up the river before performing some very tightly synchronised manoeuvres. I'm not sure if it was planned but there was a cruise ship heading directly toward the downdraft wake of one of the choppers hovering close to the water and so the passengers on the deck copped their own special show there.
The Black Hawks got a bit more elevated than the Tigers as they flew up the river buzzing our building at a 28th floor level close enough to see the pilot, and to feel like you could reach out and touch them. Later on they repeated the feat with a night run complete with search spotlights lighting up the river below.
Then came the fireworks. The start was signalled by one final flyover with the Hornets dropping ribbons of flares across the night sky reminescent of the now defunct dump-and-burn manoeuvre the F-111s used to perform before they were retired a couple of years back.
The Story Bridge display was as impressive as usual, with the 'fire curtain' making a repeat appearance drawing many 'oohs' and 'ahhs' from the crowds.
But I felt the view up the river to the Kangaroo point cliffs was more impressive this year compared to previous. You could really notice the split-second timing of the same fireworks expoloding in synchronicity above the different locations along the river and over the city. I found that the addition of split-colour fireworks (a first this year?) really added an extra wow factor too.
Punters raving away to Parklife at the Botanic Gardens Riverstage didn't miss out either with the fireworks coinciding with the performance of one of the headline acts, Nero. Here's a video from one such excited punter.
I'll leave you with some comments posted on a Facebook friend's page that made me stop and think. Here's Lawrence English's ( https://www.facebook.com/lawrencepenglish/posts/10151110128819262 ) thought provoking take on the afternoon military display:
"Today we wage war upon ourselves. [...] I'm struck by a sense of decadence in a people, who can celebrate a city with the machinery and sounds of terror that have destroyed so many other similar cities around the world. We revel in a bombastic dream of war that would make others cower. How lucky we are, and most of us don't even realise it. Happy Riverfire, let them eat cake. "
I do recall having conflicting emotions of awe, and guilty sorrow/shame at one stage during the display for the same reasons. But the awe won out as the guilt was quickly suppressed. Maybe it was just my mind pleasing my hedonistic side.
Lawrence's comments also reminded me of a conversation I had with a sales assistant in the city on Friday before Riverfire when the Hornets had been rehearsing their flyovers. I asked if she had heard the planes today and she commented yes, and it had given her quite a scare as she is from Israel and the sound of a screaming bomber overhead has different connotations there. She had to remind herself that she was in Australia, where things like that don't happen.
Happy Riverfire indeed.
