“There was no booing . . .”
Roddy McCuish, Councilman from Oban, Scotland
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| Photo by Billy Hicks |
On the evening of November 4th, townspeople from Oban, Scotland (population 8,120) gathered to watch a fireworks display in celebration of Guy Fawkes Day. Like thousands of people throughout the United Kingdom, they settled back and looked skyward, anticipating a 20-minute show of “rockets red glare” and “bombs bursting in air.” What they got were 50 seconds of the most intense fireworks since the Beijing Olympics. Because of a technical glitch, all £6,000 ($9,418 to you and me) worth of fireworks exploded at 20 times the normal speed. Although the fireworks were short-lived, the story of the small town’s big bang lives on. A video of the fireworks display hit the Internet and went viral—almost a million viewers so far. The fireworks company said there were no complaints after the abbreviated display, but they put on a second fireworks show for free—called “Obang”—during the town’s Winter Festival this last weekend. Hundreds of people showed up and were perhaps a little disappointed to see the display go off without a hitch.
To see the explosive Oban Fireworks video, watch the video below:
History lesson: For those of us west of the Atlantic, Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated on November 5th to commemorate the failure of Guy Fawkes and other terrorists to blow up the British Houses of Parliament in 1605. On this day, people throughout the United Kingdom celebrate with bonfires and fireworks.
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