Bompas & Parr worked with Vodafone, in partnership with the Mayor of London, to create the world’s first mutli-sensory firework display for London’s New Year’s Eve.
Visitors watching London’s fireworks between Westminster Bridge and Hungerford Bridge got to experience a total sensory assault with the different coloured fireworks matched to fruity flavours. So as red pyrotechnics exploded in the sky, the city was engulfed in a strawberry flavoured cloud.
The groundbreaking event involved:
Revellers seeing, smelling and tasting clouds of apple, cherry and strawberry mist, peach snow, ‘floating oranges’ – thousands of enormous bubbles filled with Seville orange flavoured smoke and edible banana confetti, a world’s first in its own right!
Why fruit fireworks?
Fruit is nature’s way of celebrating.
Though strictly speaking all fireworks are ‘multi-sensory’ this was the first time in the history of mankind that specific flavours have been choreographed to match the pyrotechnics.
Across the world, there are 240,000 to 500,000 plant species that bear fruits of which 70,000 to 80,000 are thought to be edible and tasty, so the editing process has been crucial. Bompas & Parr has gone on a global fruit quest tracking down the ultimate fruits to choreograph the fireworks to.
The chosen fruits were cross-cultural, so everyone could relate to them, and recognisable so that they could be understandable in the smoke and fury of the fireworks show. Bompas & Parr worked with the flavour scientists at TasteTech to ensure that all the flavorings are halal and kosher approved.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: "A spectacular display of pyrotechnics that you can taste and even smell! Where else but London would you get such an experience? Whether you are getting a sensory overload along the river, or having your new year reality augmented at home, our partnership with Vodafone is creating a fantastic first for London, one that will help kick off 2014 in magnificent style."
Harry Parr, food artist, said: “Our ambition is simple – ‘flavoured fireworks,’ and the greatest number of people in human history having a simultaneous multi-sensory experience. As well as going on a global fruit quest to track down the best fruit flavours, we have worked with food technology experts and pyrotechnicians to create banana-flavoured edible confetti, giant orange-flavoured bubbles and fruity mists.”
About Vodafone Firsts
Vodafone's partnership with Bompas & Parr and the Mayor of London to bring the world's first multi-sensory fireworks display to London marks the beginning of the company's new global brand engagement strategy, "Vodafone Firsts". "Firsts" focuses on a simple concept: that Vodafone's technology and connectivity can enable and inspire people to do something amazing for the first time, from making their first call to sharing their first video. Full details can be found here
Photography by Stefan Braun and Vodafone.