2005 Royal Adelaide Show Main Arena Spectacular - Expression of Interest

[Firefrog]

2005 Royal Adelaide Show Main Arena Spectacular - Expression of Interest


It’s show time! The SA County Fire Service has had a long-standing involvement with the annual Royal Adelaide Show at the Wayville Showground. Following the success of this involvement over the years, the Royal Adelaide Show has given the CFS an exciting opportunity to participate in the 2005 Main Arena Entertainment program. CFS Public Affairs has agreed to participate by producing a presentation, which will follow the ‘Holden Storm Riders Precision Driving Team’ at 8.15pm. The CFS presentation will then be followed by 'The Human Cannonball' and ‘The Freestyle Motor Cross Team’ before a finale of fireworks. Needless to say the CFS is being given prime placement for maximum marketing reach.

 

Every night from Friday 2 September to Saturday 10 September, CFS will have 15 minutes to entertain and educate a crowd of more than 10,000 people in the main arena. By the end of the show, approximately 100,000 people will have seen the CFS ‘perform’. For this reason CFS Public Affairs has chosen to put all their resources into the production and management of this main arena presentation and will not be hosting a fixed display site in 2005. Having a fixed site in the past has served the CFS well and will continue to do so in the future.

 

Volunteers have always been an integral part of the success of CFS involvement at the Royal Adelaide Show. Expressions of interest are now being sought from CFS volunteers who are keen to participate in this exciting opportunity in 2005. The 15-minute presentation, branded as the ‘CFS Smokey Spectacular’, is fundamentally an energetic, lighthearted showcase of entertainment featuring Smokey the Koala and CFS volunteers. The presentation, aimed at reaching the family market, will take a glance at how the CFS has evolved to become a modern highly sophisticated organisation, provide a few fire safety tips with ‘Smokey’ before concluding with a competition between firefighters over a series of mock firefighting scenarios.

 

Volunteers must meet the following requirements in order to be considered for the presentation:

Be trained and competent in skills learnt from Basic Firefighting Level One
Be Available for three or more of the nine nights from 6pm Friday 2 September to Saturday 10 September and rehearsals on 2pm Saturday 27 August and 6.30pm Tuesday 30 August 2005.
Be physically and mentally capable of participating in a 15-minute presentation in front of a large crowd
Have clean personal protective equipment
Have transportation to and from the Wayville Showground
 

Volunteer positions available range from ‘performance personnel’ to ‘ground support staff. Any volunteers selected for the presentation who incur out of pocket expenses will be reimbursed by the CFS. To register, send your ‘expression of interest’ to one of the addresses below including the following details:

Name
Contact information (including phone number, email and postal address)
CFS Brigade/Office
Number of years as a CFS volunteer/staff member
List any of the following CFS courses completed and currently valid:
Level One/Two/Three/CABA/HAZMAT/Senior First Aid

Advise of time available:
Royal Show Main Arena 2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10 September

Rehearsals 27/30 August

 

Send your expression of interest to:

CFS Public Affairs

Email: publicaffairs@cfs.org.au

Fax: (08) 8463 4234

Post: PO Box 2468, Adelaide SA 5001

 
‘Expressions of interest must be submitted by 5pm Wednesday 10 August 2005. While positions are limited every effort will be made to include as many volunteers as possible. Notification will occur by return mail (don’t forget to include your contact details in your expression of interest). For more information contact Brenton Ragless from CFS Public Affairs on (08) 8463 4213.

[oz fire]

Surely someone is interested in this - 30 views and no posts - surely someone has a comment, even a little comment - a view on how the public percieves our show displays!

Certainly if Rags is organising it it will be first class - lets hope those who then go and represent the 10,000 active mebers are also first class and do us all proud and promote the positve side of CFS!

[CyberCitizen]

Yes I Have Contacted Them & Put My name Forward.  I Think It Would Be Good It's Prime Time, So Its time For The CFS To Show That We Don't Just Fight Bush Fires.

[strikeathird]

Are they still having the regular CFS stand?

[kat]

Are they still having the regular CFS stand?

No - see quote from original post:

>>Every night from Friday 2 September to Saturday 10 September, CFS will have 15 minutes to entertain and educate a crowd of more than 10,000 people in the main arena. By the end of the show, approximately 100,000 people will have seen the CFS ‘perform’. For this reason CFS Public Affairs has chosen to put all their resources into the production and management of this main arena presentation and will not be hosting a fixed display site in 2005. Having a fixed site in the past has served the CFS well and will continue to do so in the future.

[CFS_Firey]

Does anyone know what they are planning to do?  How are they going to show off what the CFS does in 15 minutes?
Or will it just be a bit of Extinguisher fun with people in BA or splash suits?

[CyberCitizen]

There Needs To Be Some Flamage, Something To Make The Crowd Sit Up From There Seats & Take Notice.  All To Often We Are Known As A Bush Fire Org.  We Need To Show Them That We Do More Than That.

Perhaps A Mock Rescue?

[Fire_Rescue96]

I think something like that would be good but a mock accident would take too long. But really something with flames as that would get the attention of all the audience.
The one that they did a couple of years ago with the five man attacks was good maybe something like that.

[corocfs]

For this reason CFS Public Affairs has chosen to put all their resources into the production and management of this main arena presentation and will not be hosting a fixed display site in 2005. Having a fixed site in the past has served the CFS well and will continue to do so in the future.

theres a bit of a contradiction... they will be pulling the fixed site, but it will continue to serve them well in the future.

yes.. a mock incident would be great, just cut some doors of a car, or use a gas prop for a while... all to often cfs promo demos are  a horrible representation of us. a lot of demos end up being boring/slow and un-professional...

however after saying all that, i have no time to be involved due to wacky shift work, and cant really offer any fantastic or even mildly good ideas for the demo..

[strikeathird]

Thats why I asked about the fixed stand, cause it said how it would serve in the future etc???


Confusing...


I think they should still have the fixed stand, even if they do run this at night.  After taking part in the promotions stand in the last 3 years, it educates a LOT of people!!

[CFS_Firey]

I think they should still have the fixed stand, even if they do run this at night. After taking part in the promotions stand in the last 3 years, it educates a LOT of people!!

Especially so that when people get all interested in the CFS in the arena, they have somewhere to go and ask questions, find out how to sign up etc... It makes sense to have both a stand and the arena event...

[corocfs]

plus the stands are great... last year it won first prize i believe///

and it gives everyone the chance to crawl through a fire truck, have a play, and see some gear.. its always a great chance to speak to potential vollunteers as well.

[strikeathird]

Amen to the above 2 posts.


Well, looks like in 1 day we have thought about the potentials of what a stand can deliver, and in a year some one has decided to can the stand, and have a arena display..............

[TillerMan]

Yeah, it's funny how we are all struggling for day crew and some brigades are struggling for crew full stop yet we are missing out on the biggest recruiting drives ever. I don't know if there aren't enough people volunteering to do it but our brigade usually fills in a crew for one of the days easily.

[24P]

I seem to remember a few years back they had a main arena display with 5 appliances plus a static display near the sideshows. Obiviously lack of space to have both this year?

[mattb]

The main arena display is going to be big. It will involve an audio visual display up on a big screen, some driving around the oval in new and historic vehicles and then a gas prop display in the middle featuring a competitions style event.

I'm not sure how many people have so far registered their interest to be involved but I'm hoping we can pull this off well as it is certainly going to be good exposure for the service.

The static display has served us well in the past and will continue to in the future, however I think this opportunity to perform at the peak time of the night in front of a huge crowd has required our dedicated(and overworked) Public Affairs staff to devote their time to this event rather than trying to scramble together the resources and personnel for both displays.

[Fire_Rescue96]

If thats what they are planning on doing then I think it will be a good, Show the people how CFS has changed over the years.
As for the gas prop and comp thing I think if you have the right people they will make it a great event.

[TillerMan]

Yes, it should be good, as long as the people who become interested in joining on the night remember to come to the station and join later on.

[oz fire]

Mmmm if the arena dispaly is being coordinate by Rags it is sure to impress!

The issue of a stand is money, people, time to coordinate and alike - and before anyone says anything - it's a huge effort and in the early days was coordinated by Volunteers - the initial promotions unit, which was a tight knit group of people, who sucessfully targeted the appropiate persons to help them on the stand - over the years it has grown and grown and we need to remember now more than ever that we need to portray a professional image, presentable, tidy, professional and a fire service!

[strikeathird]

Maybe they can organise a few stand wanderers, in PPE, so they are distinguished,  handing out pamphlets or joining info.. etc..

Basically, to provide an avenue of follow up...........Otherwise its really totally useless.

[mattb]

Good idea Strikeathird.

The show will actually begin with the sound of a pager over the P.A. system followed by volunteers rushing from the crowd, getting into PPE and then crewing the appliances on the oval. Emphasising the point that we are all vollies who are normally doing other things when the pager goes off.

A few extra volunteers in the stands would be a good way for people to be able to ask questions and get more info. Maybe an announcement over the PA letting people know that they can ask these people for info would be useful as well.

[strikeathird]

^^^  hehehehe.... Can't wait to see the reactions of the 'non' exhibit members reaching for there pagers to see what they have been turned out too.


Doesn't sound too bad MattB.   

[CyberCitizen]

Yes I Like Matt's Idea As Well.  It Would Be A Good Way To Show The People That We Are Just Your Every Day People, Until That Little Sound On The Pager That Gets Us Going.

Can't wait to see the reactions of the 'non' exhibit members reaching for there pagers to see what they have been turned out too.

Yes That Look Would Be Priceless.

[CFS_Firey]

So now that its getting close, does anyone have more specific details / comments on what is to be done?

[Firefrog]

From the Organisers.

So, what's going to happen?

Already, we've had to make some major changes and will no longer be having the 'firefighter challenge'. Because we commence immediately after the 'Holden Precision Driving Team' we're unable to set up on the arena until they've finished. This allows us 15 minutes to set up and perform and not a minute longer.

I will go through this in more detail at the first rehearsal but basically the routine will occur as follows:

The MC will enter the arena and will spend no more than two-three minutes looking at how the CFS has evolved from a bushfire brigade to a highly sophisticated multi emergency response agency. As images of the 'way we were' are splashed on the big screen, two brilliantly restored EFS vehicles will traverse the arena, one of them carrying 'Smokey'. As this is occurring, our ground crews will set up four different scenarios in each 'corner' of the arena (see the attached layout).

Then, two CFS appliances and their crews will respond to the scenarios alternately as follows:
1) 2 x 1m wide x 1m high cages of straw either ignited remotely by fireworks or by one of our crew as a 'fire lighter'. Fire crews 'A' respond to extinguish the fire.
2) 3 x 200 litre drums emitting luminous colored smoke to simulate a hazardous material response. Fire crews 'B' respond with crews wearing HAZMAT suits to simulate the 'handling' of dangerous chemicals.
3) A simulated vehicle accident resulting in a road crash rescue response.
The vehicle will be displayed on a green trailer. Fire crews 'A' respond to extinguish the fire and simulate a forced entry into the car to extricate the 'person' trapped.
4) Industrial explosion/structure fire by where a gas prop and/or other fireworks are used to bring the responses to a spectacular finale. Fire crews 'B' respond to extinguish the fire.

Once the last scenario finishes, Mick the clown will conduct his 'car on fire' routine if time permits.

As for setting up, once the MC has entered the arena, a forklift or pallet jack will set up the straw bales in the south western corner while a single utility vehicle towing the trailer with all the equipment necessary will immediately traverse the outer ring to set up the other three scenarios. The vehicle will first drop off the gas prop at the north eastern corner, followed by the three HAZMAT drums at the north western corner, before detaching the trailer carrying the road crash vehicle at the south western corner (see the attached layout).

Each scenario is only a basic response and will occur for a period of no more than two minutes. The key to the success of this presentation will be to make each scenario occur quickly and look spectacular while highlighting the diversity of the CFS. The main arena lights are out for the duration of the presentation with spotlights moving from one scenario to the other with the MC commentating each scenario as it occurs.