Mumbles Posted June 16, 2006 Posted June 16, 2006 I don't know if I would call Ohio North east. I'd still consider it Midwest. The weather channel does at least. Anyway it is at in Appleton, WI. The shooting will happen at the Wisconsin International Speedway. The meetings and such will be at the Paper Valley Hotel. As soon as we get it, I will post the agenda or schedule of what is going on. This will allow people to come for what they want to see. I suggest the opening show on sunday night, and the competitions.
FrankRizzo Posted June 16, 2006 Posted June 16, 2006 Yep, as Mumbles said, you'll want to see both the opening and closing shows on Sunday and Friday respectively. Bill C. will be shooting some rather large gas bombs during the WPAG show, and AM Pyro will be doing the closing show, so it's guaranteed to be a blast! The guys from AM love to throw 20-30 of the same type of effect up in the sky as to cover your entire field of vision...fuckin' incredible. All of the nightly shows are usually available to the public, but you'll likely have to pay for seating in the bleachers. The convention "campus" will be off-limits to anyone without the proper credentials.
Mumbles Posted June 16, 2006 Posted June 16, 2006 I heard it was Paul Biersach with the gas bombs. Well, he is making or doing something with them. The guy I know in the WPAG saw some pictures and video of them, VERY impressive.
asilentbob Posted June 17, 2006 Posted June 17, 2006 I would love to go to a PGI, inc. convention! As soon as i get a job the first major purchases will be PGI membership and passfire.com. I'm trying to convince my mom to get me a passfire.com subscription because i stopped getting some other magazines. I have my fingers crossed on that though. Anyways, being in TX would make most of thier shows hell to drive to alone. However, if somehow i do end up being able to make it to one, it would be awesome to meet up with some of yall.
TheSidewinder Posted June 17, 2006 Posted June 17, 2006 It's too late to sign up for the PGI Convention this year, UNLESS you were a PGI member by....umm... June 1st (?) of this year. I'm a member of the WPAG, and a co-leader for one section of the display. The opening show on Sunday night will knock your socks off. PERIOD.We are shooting almost 5000 shells in a 15-minute display. And we have a little surprise planned. I'll say no more than that. Open shooting, Class C and B, is available for any PGI member but the general public cannot participate in any way. EDIT: I should mention, in case some do not know the procedure, that *IF* you bring home-made devices to shoot, you MUST check them into the magazine provided by the PGI. DON'T make the mistake of thinking that you can just keep stuff in your car, camper, tent, whatever. WE ARE UNDER FEDERAL SCRUTINY EVERY YEAR, and woe be to the person who draws their wrath.EDIT OFF. Mr. Biersach is one of several people who made (or are making) the Lampares for the show. As I posted above, the convention is at the Racetrack in Appleton, Wisconsin. The campground, where a group of us in the WPAG will be, is Apple Creek Campground in nearby DePere, WI. Anyone wanting the phone number PLEASE PM ME. I won't post the number in an open forum. If you call NOW, you should have no problem getting a site. But that will change quickly in the coming weeks as hotels and campgrounds fill up. From what I hear, the closest hotels have been booked full already. I'm looking forward to meeting some APC-philes...... M
Swany Posted June 17, 2006 Author Posted June 17, 2006 Not this year, however if I miss West Fargo I may be forced to commit hari-kiri or something of that like. Presumably most of the Mid-westernites will make the trip to it. Hopefully being in North Dakota doesn't mean that it will be myself and 3 other people. However, I remain bright about the outlook. Only because I cannot spell optomistic. I hate spelling. PGI sounds like happiness.
justanotherpyro Posted June 17, 2006 Posted June 17, 2006 Damn all this talk about how cool it will be when I can't go . It sucks living out west.
TheSidewinder Posted June 18, 2006 Posted June 18, 2006 Not this year, however if I miss West Fargo I may be forced to commit hari-kiri or something of that like. Presumably most of the Mid-westernites will make the trip to it. Hopefully being in North Dakota doesn't mean that it will be myself and 3 other people. However, I remain bright about the outlook. Only because I cannot spell optomistic. I hate spelling. PGI sounds like happiness. Swany, I'll be in Fargo next year, come hell or high water. Too bad you can't make it this year. If it's simply a transportation issue, and you can get to Minneapolis with a way to get back home from there, you can ride shotgun with me to Appleton and back. But it's up to you to find camping accomodations.
Mephistos Minion Posted June 18, 2006 Posted June 18, 2006 I wont be able to make it over there untill 2008, then I will be almost 19 and hopefully a PGI member working for a pyro company here.
Mumbles Posted July 24, 2006 Posted July 24, 2006 So if anyone who is going wants to meet up or something, pm me. I am far too excited for that week. I quit my job just to go. I'm looking at going to some of the seminars, but I will be working on a display saturday, so I hope they're not all filled up by evening, or sunday, or whenever I get time. Of course the ones I wanted to go to arn't available for early registration.
cplmac Posted September 5, 2006 Posted September 5, 2006 Or maybe..... Desert Blast??? Sounds like a blast and seems to have no or very few rules!!!Last I heard Desert Blast is canceled due to dry conditions. I went to the PGI convention this year in Appleton and it was a blast. Appleton was a great venue, good food in town and a real nice venue at the Wisconsin International Raceway for the pyro end of things. You could buy pretty much anything you need in the way of pyro and supplies. Understandably there were some restrictions in place for the purchase of fine mesh aluminum. We did set two world records for the superstring. Most firecrackers on the same string with 10.8 million and the most firecrackers in 5 seconds with 800,000 crackers going up on the vertical. There were classes there for those who wanted to take them on rocketry, star rolling, and other pyro related topics. Open shooting for 1.4 and rockets and some home made shells. It was very cool and the final display had some of the most amazing shell colors and effects I have ever seen. There was a nice two stage girandola scene but I still would rather go to Valencia Spain and watch there three stagers. All in all it was pyropalooza for a week and totally worth the trip and money. If anyone is interested I will gladly post some pics. The pic below is a group of us carrying out just one of the twelve legs of the superstring. I think it weighed 3000 pounds. http://images.kodakgallery.com/photos2398/3/45/5/44/64/0/64440545311_0_ALB.jpgThis is a picture of the last belt being layed out for the vertical string by the guy in charge of the superstring Dave Carlson.http://images.kodakgallery.com/photos2398/3/45/34/42/65/0/65423445311_0_ALB.jpg Oh and Sidewinder, the WPAG display was FANTASTIC!!! Nice work! You were right on about the hotels. I booked the morning we left for Appleton and the only hotel I could get a reservation at was next to Green Bay Airport, which was actually pretty close to WIR, about 20 minutes or so.
TheSidewinder Posted September 6, 2006 Posted September 6, 2006 *************SNIP*********Oh and Sidewinder, the WPAG display was FANTASTIC!!! Nice work! You were right on about the hotels. I booked the morning we left for Appleton and the only hotel I could get a reservation at was next to Green Bay Airport, which was actually pretty close to WIR, about 20 minutes or so.Why thank you! The Guild worked very hard to get it right. The crowd screamed it's approval, and we all celebrated into the night. M EDIT: justanotherpyro, get thee to Gillette, WY, in 2008!!
cplmac Posted September 7, 2006 Posted September 7, 2006 We closed down the afterglow tent that night. Those Ace Pyro drippy comets were beautiful too. My brother and I put 15 of them in our show this year.
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