Once again this year Mike went out to Italy to provide decor and pass on his knowledge to delegates from many nationalities at the Balloon Arts Convention Italy, BACI 2014. This year he again worked with Matt Lewis CBA of Matthew Lewis Displays, Coventry and Dominic Casidy CBA of All Things Fun, Horden.
This year the event was moved from its normal venue of Florence to the Town of Patti on the beautiful Island of Sicily.
The venue for the week was the Simenzaru Wild Village Holiday complex. The venue was directly on the beach, very open to the Mediterranean strong winds and of course extreme heat.
Our brief was to create fun Jungle and Tropical decor.
Day one saw us working in a Marquee in Patti Marina creating the entrance decor for the Large Sculpture competition. We used a mixture of Palm Trees printed balloons and Monkeys to create a fun entrance.
We now had 2 days to fight the wind and create decor that would move in the wind but still look good. We used lots of Aeropoles for arches.
Cactus’s made from Quick Link Balloons are great fun.
Next we needed to include the jungle animal element but it mud withstand the wind. I think our solution proved it worked great. Our moving Animal Pillars known as windy’s worked a treat. These are available to order from For Every Occasion now.
Our next task was to decorate the street in Patti Marina for an evening festival. We wanted to create colour that would move and have impact. Our Balloon Fireworks were perfect for the job, how ever putting a ladder in the middle of a road with cars travelling down either side was a challenge.
We now turned our attention to the final night party. Once again our biggest challenge was the wind. Table centres had to be pinned to the tables decor had to move and it needed to be fun. We once again used the Aeropole arch system this time with balloon fireworks. 2 balloon walls using Zebra print and personalised balloons where created for the stage and a sunny Jungle entrance was created.
Another fantastic event in Italy. Outdoor decor can be provided in high winds and extreme heat. It’s a challenge but we can do it.
