page_title: IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth
section_title: Fireworks
hierarchical_section_title: IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth / Technical infrastructure / Fireworks
caption_attribution_description: Fireworks barges used for the IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth show at Epcot.
context_page_description: IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth was a nighttime show performed nightly at Epcot at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. The show utilized fireworks, pyrotechnics, water fountains, fire effects, lasers, searchlights, and a large rotating globe with curved LED screens to create a visual production on the park's World Showcase Lagoon.
  The show told the story of Earth and was divided into three movements titled "Chaos," "Order," and "Meaning", emphasizing the idea of humanity as a single unified tribe on this planet. The lagoon was surrounded by nineteen large torches signifying the first 19 centuries of the common era, and the show culminated in the globe opening like a lotus blossom to reveal a twentieth torch, representing the now-completed 20th century.
  Created and directed by Don Dorsey, the show premiered on October 1, 1999 as IllumiNations 2000: Reflections of Earth as part of the Walt Disney World Millennium Celebration; it was so successful that after the celebration ended the 2000 was dropped from the name and the show was continued.
context_section_description: Walt Disney Entertainment invented a new way of launching fireworks for the show, which used a pneumatic launch system, instead of black powder that pollutes more and causes the trail of an igniting firework shell to be seen. The technology was developed for Disneyland under requirement by the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The compressed air technology allowed for explosions to be timed with the music and for the height of the shell's explosion to be controlled. Not all the shells used the ALF (Air Launch Fireworks) technology. A timing chip was inserted into the shell and was programmed to ignite and explode with precision. Eric Tucker, an award-winning pyrotechnics designer, was brought on board to design new fireworks effects. Designers of the show meet with fireworks manufacturers in China to create these new effects for the show. 750 individual mortar tubes were used during each show, inside one of the 56 firing modules at 34 locations around the lagoon, producing 2,120 visible effects.  During the holiday season, two more barges were added and an additional 455 pieces are fired, producing 818 more visible effects.
caption: Fireworks barges
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