Barrages and Cakes

The Fireworks That Do All the Hard Work

When it comes to fireworks, barrages (or cakes) are the undisputed crowd favourite. Why? Because they bring all the excitement with none of the faff—just light the fuse and let the show unfold.

These multi-shot fireworks come in all shapes and sizes, offering everything from rapid-fire sequences to dramatic sky-filling bursts. With so many choices, you’ll find huge finales, colourful effects, and plenty of noise, all packed into a single firework that does exactly what it’s supposed to—dazzle.

Whether you’re after big impact or precise effects, barrages are the backbone of any display, guaranteed to turn heads and drop jaws.

They are made up of multiple tubes, all interlinked with a fuse and fired off a single fuse, and may be classified as 1.4g or 1.3g, depending on the amount of flash powder.

The Barrage may consist of multiple effects and firing patterns but must conform to strict rules to allow them to be sold as a retail item to the general public.

For retail, we are bound by legislation, and currently, they are that for a firework to be deemed for sale to the general public, it must conform to the following.

All fireworks must-have CE certification, this replaces the old BS7114 classification. Must not exceed 1kg net explosive content for a single firework, excludes compounds but each individual firework within a compound must not exceed 1kg.

Must not exceed a maximum tube diameter of 30mm.

If any of the above criteria are NOT met, then the firework becomes a Cat4 product and is NOT available to the general public.