A family fired up by fireworks
MANILA, Philippines - A myriad of things bind the Filipino family; among others, food, sports, faith, country, God — but fireworks?
Take it from the Crisostomos of La Mancha Group International (LMGI) the country’s leading pyrotechnics show and special effects company and the producer of the World Pyro Olympics 2009. For this brood, it’s fireworks that make their family tick.
“In 1988, my dad Ricky was awestruck with what he saw during a three-day fireworks competition in Europe,” recalls Rob Crisostomo, vice president for marketing of LMGI. From that experience, the elder Crisostomo started to nurture a vision: to bring that kind of a spectacle to the Philippines.
Soon after hooking up with pyrotechnics experts in Europe, Ricky’s team made up of wife Marissa, children Miguel, Robert, Enzo, and daughter Anna were painting Manila’s skies with colorful aerial displays at the Philippine Centennial celebrations.
From then on, there was no stopping the Crisostomo brood from firing at higher heights at different locales. Later they were commissioned by the Department of Tourism (DOT) to do shows for “Wow Philippines” that took them from Benguet all the way to Zamboanga.
Lean And Mean Team
Everyone had his fair share of work in this happy family enterprise, says Rob who at that time was still finishing studies at the Ateneo de Manila University. “Not even my sister was spared — from doing trenches to mixing pyro ingredients,” he says.
Rob later had hands on training with pyro experts in Europe. His elder brother who was then in charge of operations is now country head of a leading call center, while Anna’s a banker, although both of them still help out in WPO setups. Enzo now heads operations while mom Marissa is into finance work for LMGI.
With a lean and mean team, La Mancha staged the first International Fireworks Festival in December 2002 and the World Pyro Olympics Exhibition in March and April of 2004. Major firework makers from nine countries participated in the competition: Australia, China, Germany, Korea, Russia, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, the UK and the US. La Mancha of the Philippines displayed a colorful fireworks demonstration on the last day. Australia won the coveted prize.
“What people thought was pretty, we thought was ‘bad’ because we had five sleepless nights,” laughs Rob, thinking about how difficult it was to do shows for five consecutive days. The unprecedented fireworks competition was later tagged “the most anticipated event of the year.”
With a spectator turnout of over 500,000 at the event site and over oine million people in the peripheral areas, the organization produced the second WPO in 2007. The United Kingdom won and the team from China won an award for technical precision.
This year’s World Pyro Olympics will see three returning champions competing for the coveted prize — Italy, Australia and China along with Canada, Germany, Japan, Korea, and the US will battle it out for pyro supremacy for five consecutive Saturdays — Nov. 21 and 28, Dec. 5, 12 and 19 at WPO’s new home, the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.
Reeling from a winning performance at the Zagreb International Fireworks Festival held in Croatia earlier this year where they won second prize as Technical Jury and Audience Favorite, La Mancha is poised to wow the crowd at the fourth WPO’s finale.
“We created the WPO for families to come together and enjoy our shows and not to create monstrous traffic jams,” defends Rob after criticisms that the event led to a major traffic disaster. That is why La Mancha, the Bonifacio Development Corporation (FBDC) and the city of Taguig have spent months planning this year’s fireworks competition to make it more enjoyable and hassle-free.
Some of the other attractions at WPO 2009 are car audio exihibits, a showdown of local marching bands, play areas for kids and bazaars.
