Fireworks Spectacular 2022 at Alton Towers Fireworks review, show info and photo gallery

Fireworks explode over the Towers

Alton had a tough act to follow after last year's special fireworks show celebrating the park's 40th anniversary. Following on from 2021's time travelling adventure, this year's show focussed on a celebration of the park's rollercoasters.

The setup felt a bit déjà vu, with the return of large screens (albeit with a more traditional landscape orientation this year) surrounding the main audience area on the front lawns, which saw the welcome return of the plastic matting underfoot to protect both the lawns and the visitors from the underlying mud. There was again live entertainment on the stage prior to the show, with a guest DJ sponsored by the drinks brand Relentless playing an at times questionable choice of music in the run-up to the display itself beginning.

In a first for Alton Towers, the final section of the preshow featured a drone display made up of 100 drones creating various shapes in the sky above the Towers to the sound of Luude's Bitter Sweet Symphony/Message in a Bottle Remix.

Sir Algenon one one of the large screens

Once again Sir Algenon was back - via the giant video screens - to host the show, describing it as the biggest musical event of the year: The Festival of Thrill. After introducing the lineup of rollercoasters, the first act featured a rock celebration of Nemesis, which incidentally was running for the final weekend before being closed "by the Phalanx" for retracking over the 2023 season.

Next up was Th13teen, introduced by a slight modification of its infamous whisper "if you go down to the woods tonight, you better not go alone" and erie green lighting and lasers. With somewhat of a shift in tone came a hugely camp and colourful Rita party, complete with drag queen on screen intro and Lady Gaga soundtrack.

Reaching the mid-point of the display, Oblivion took centre stage as the music genre transitioned towards Dance and Electronia. This mixed straight into the Galactica section, with appropriately space themed songs including Sam Ryder's almost-Eurovision-winning Space Man and a remix of David Bowie's Starman, plus the entire front lawns lit up in deep blue.

Part of the Oblivion section

After its notable absence from last year's show, the spirit of the Wicker Man was summoned with a fiery orange glow and the sound of Stranger Things and Kate Bush (yep, really). Following that came a surprise on-screen appearance from Gerry Cannell reprising his role as Dr Kelman, introducing The Smiler.

Sir Algenon introduced the finale: a bit of a weak ending with Alton Towers becoming the headliner. While the haunting Never Enough from The Greatest Showman sounded fantastic, the change of pace and the attempt to create an emotional climax fell a bit flat compared to the more subtle ways the park have done it in shows past. There were, however, some amazing fireworks including some which seemed to launch, float downwards then launch up into the air again. As always though, the real close of the show came with the now-traditional special version of In the Hall of the Mountain King created for the park by IMAscore a few years previously.

Overall the show was pretty good, even if it didn't quite reach the grandeur of last year's very special one. Jubilee Fireworks once again did a superb job with the fireworks themselves of which there were both huge volume and variety. The overall theme though, celebrating the park's major rollercoasters, feels a bit overused with the same thing being done several times recently. It would be great to have more imaginative stories back, if only for a little variety and a break from the repetitive rollercoasters and/or music of the decades themes that keep getting rolled out.

More: Trip report and photos