I met with Michael Lutz, co-designer of the show (his uncle Joe Rozzi is the other co-designer), Maria-Grazia Gerbaudo (Panzera’s Chief Sales Officer), Franceso Armigliato (Panzera’s Chief Technology Officer) and Paul Csukassy (designer of the soundtrack and Montreal International Fireworks Competition Technical Director) for what turns out to be my 100th interview since following the competition.
Franceso Armigliato (l), Maria-Grazia Gerbaudo & Michael Lutz (r)
Michael was in the slightly unusual position this year in designing an in-competition display as well as this usual closing show with the usual collaboration between Rozzi and Panzera SRL. Rozzi are both customers and collaborators, being the main importer of Panzera products in the United States as well as providing collaboration with Panzera in terms of putting on large-scale displays. Indeed, this has been a big year for Michael and both companies as they competed in Cannes, Montreal and, of course, designed this closing show. Michael did tell me the design for this show was done before his in-competition display and he had the talents of his uncle, Joe Rozzi, to work on the design. The two split the work pretty much 50/50 and so it will be interesting to contrast their styles.
Michael said he had no input into the soundtrack, but this is usually the case for most of his customers who commission a display. He gets the soundtrack and then has to design the display to fit. For this year’s tribute to Metallica, he said it was a joy as he loves the band and they were the first concert he attended. He said that both he and his son have “Master of Puppets” as their favourite Metallica track. On the technical side, the display was designed using Finale3D and will be approximately 5000 cues with all ramps being used except for the top control room, ramp 4. 95% of the products used are from Panzera and the remaining 5% are various cakes and slices. There will be plenty of large shells with 300mm, multiple 250mm and 200mm shells. No special effects or structures, just classic display design.
Panzera T-Shirt Front
Maria-Grazia said that there have been lots of changes at the Panzera factory over the past couple of years, with new shell-wrapping machines and other automation, but one of the biggest changes has been to eliminate the use of all plastics in shells and design a new range of one-shots that produce zero debris. These are made of plastic that can be recycled, but the shots themselves produce nothing that isn’t consumed by the device itself. Francesco stressed that the company has worked hard to eliminate the use of perchlorates in 90% of their products, this being important for certain clients that shoot large numbers of displays in sensitive sites with water features. Despite the changes in the chemistry, Francesco and Maria believe their colours have never been brighter nor more vivid than now and we should expect to see a lot of these in the display, including their range of ghost shells and “Medusa Polyps”. Maria said that Panzera is doing well, exporting six 40′ containers per year from Italy now, though with an increase in the numbers of one-shots versus shells in the product mix. And, of course, Rozzi are a key customer for the North American market.
Panzera T shirt back
Last, but not least, Paul explained how he crafted the Tribute to Metallica soundtrack. He said he was quite a large fan of the band in the 1980s and 1990s, but lost some interest from the 2000s onwards, until the release of their latest album, 72 Seasons. He said he spent a lot of time going through all of their repertoire, first selecting the opening and closing tracks, and then working to build a soundtrack with good dynamics in between these flanks. The length of some of the songs makes this difficult and he sought to find tracks that would blend well together when woven together, with perhaps a common note or chord. Some songs were too long to use even a full verse or chorus, so he included important elements such as a guitar solo etc. As in previous years, the mixing was done at Studio Piccolo.
A constant theme of the 37th Edition of the competition is the weather. Every week the forecast starts out good, but then, for display day, there are warnings and threats. And so, Once again, mother nature decided to cause stress for the incontournables who venture to La Ronde for each display. The day started with severe thunderstorm watches and the first of two distinct lines of heavy showers formed around breakfast. The rest of the day was humid and dry but the threat level increased in the evening with tornado warnings in western Ontario and continuing severe thunderstorm watches and warnings for Montreal. At around 7:40, lightning could be seen and the sky became an ominous black as the storm started to approach La Ronde. I saw Johan and he seemed discouraged. I said I believed that there was a gap in the line and that we would be spared the worst of the weather, though he was more concerned that all the special FX products could be ruined. The storm approached and the winds and rains increased, then a lull around 8:30 before they increased again. By this time, the covers were off the ramps and Johan’s stress level seemed to increase. By 9:20, the rain was pouring down, but the radar appeared to be optimistic as the aforementioned gap seemed to be heading for us. And so it was – by 9:40, the rains had slowed to a trickle and we could see storms off in the distance to the left and right and an announcement that the severe thunderstorm warning was rescinded. The show started as planned, but, once again, issues with the countdown with an announcer, not a recording of Michel Lacroix, giving the wrong name for the theme and rushing the countdown, with the Grande Roue not participating.
The display began with 2 of the 3 positions on the back ramp firing, leading me to wonder if there would be weather-induced technical problems, but my fears were quickly assuaged as The Greatest Show segment built in ampleur et profondité[which is really profondeur in French], my brain struggling to think in any language due to the emotions of the unfolding spectacle. It was apparent within the first minute that we were witnessing something very special indeed and that, if the quality of the fireworks and design could be maintained for thirty minutes, we would have the winning show before us.
For the true pyrotechnicians in the audience, this was truly a special display. Johan had promised many specially saved products would be used and, for those of us who understood the profundity of this statement, it was a very emotional journey. We saw glorious 300mm shells presented so that they could be appreciated – the Yung Feng Nishiki Kamuro shell from the interview picture, manufactured sometime in the year 2000, its glittering fronds trailing all the way to the lake as tears of emotion poured down our awe-struck faces. These are moments that are hard to put into words. Flash-break golden willow shells from Zaragozana, never to be manufactured again, a terrible accident destroying the factor and killing 6 people back in 2015. Many other brilliant products from top-quality European manufacturers, all fired without repetition and in such a way that we could appreciate their beauty. Oh my goodness, what a feast for the eyes.
Team Finland in the Salon des Artificiers
Johan had first contacted me in 2013 and we talked about what it would take for him to compete in Montreal. I offered advice and he said he read every interview and report I’d written, plus everything else on the forum. Clearly he had absorbed everything he read, but, more importantly, had the passion and vision to make it into a reality. Like the journey of Vander, winning Gold for Dragon Fireworks in 2018, we witnessed something very special last night.
I met with Johan Holländer who is representing Finland for the first time with his company Joho Pyro. Johan said he had founded the company around 2003, selling consumer fireworks (like many pyros, he had had a fascination with all things pyrotechnic since childhood) and then obtained his professional licence around the same time so he could also do displays. His company is based in the region of Åland, which is an island in archipelago between Finland and Sweden.
One Shots ready for ramp 3
300mm Shell
Kenneth Forsström, Johan Holländer, Martin Igelström, Johan Persson, Christian Borgman (missing John Hilander)
A final note on the technical side, the show will feature 5600 cues, fired using FireOne and for large shell aficionados will be a delight, with fifty large-calibre shells and a tally of 9 300mm shells – the largest such inventory in the competition this year. Johan said this is a “Can’t miss” show for the audience to come to La Ronde and I could feel the passion in his every word. Let’s hope the weather cooperates!
Once again, mother nature decided to cause stress for the incontournables who venture to La Ronde for each display, no matter the weather. After a beautiful, albeit cool, summer’s day, two distinct lines of heavy showers managed to form. One went through a couple of hours before showtime, but with the heaviest rains and lightning off to the west. By 9:45pm, the rain had stopped and there was sufficient wind to move the smoke. Just past half way through the display, a few sprinkles manifested themselves, but nothing to detract from the first competition display by Rozzi and Michael Lutz since 2015.
An over-enthusiastic volley of nautical shells burst on the lake in the minute before the countdown commenced, leading us to wonder if everything was OK. At 9:59:50 the countdown started as normal, though the light’s on the Grande Roue again didn’t cooperate for a moment or two at the stroke of 10:00. The display began very powerfully, with barrages of correctly-timed nautical shells and volleys of powerful and colour shells above, together with titanium salutes. Within the first 30 seconds or so, it was clear this was going to be a display most definitely in-contention for a Jupiter.
We were treated to an excellent and well-edited soundtrack featuring many well-known classics of the Rock-n-Roll era, together with some pieces with a lessor rock-nature. There was a good contrast between very powerful pieces of music, with the fireworks reflecting this really well. Synchronization was perfect throughout the display and used artfully to highlight the music when needed. It became quickly apparent the quality of the pyrotechnics used, both low-level and in shells. Vivid colours, powerful bursts, long-lasting effects and plenty of studatas, farfalles and other Italian specialities. Panzera has some really well-done ghost shells now and these were fired so we could appreciate the effect clearly. I was also pleasantly surprised to see effects, possible from candles, that were very reminiscent of signature “sky-mines” that Rozzi used to manufacture in the US.
The low-level effects in the display were particularly well done, with very good use made of ramp 5. We were treated to a pink heart fired from an array of one-shots (with heart-shaped shells above) as well as a couple of smiley faces. I also enjoyed fans of crackling comets that really augmented the distorted guitar in AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell”. Hearing The Beatle’s “Here Comes The Sun” reminded me of the Gold Jupiter-winning display by Pains in 2007 together with the late Bob Burch’s famous photograph of a large sun set piece. Rozzi sequenced it differently, of course, but it was very effective with strobes representing winter and the ghost shells representing the sun. Serene moments were included with “magic carpet” nautical flares at several points, as well as the use of horse tails shells of different types. I enjoyed the back-and-forth horizontal firing use across ramp 3 in a couple of places too.
Rozzi's Famous Fireworks Team in the Salon des Artificiers
Montreal’s complicated summer continued with torrential rains for the morning of the display, though these cleared up to give a perfect evening for this first competition display for Canada’s oldest fireworks company, celebrating their 150th anniversary this year, since the inauguration of the competition 38 years ago in 1985. More on the weather later. Despite the rainy start to the day, the largest audience of the season, so far, was present, and enthusiastically cheered on the local team as they were presented on stage. This week, the protocol proceeded almost without incident, save for the lights on the bridge coming back on after the countdown for a minute or so as well as the Grande Roue flashing back fully on for a moment at the end of the countdown. A couple of minutes before the display began, the International Space Station flew over Montreal – a few minutes later and the crew would have possibly been able to watch some of the show!
The display began powerfully with dazzling fans of yellow-headed silver comets with volleys of large shells above. During this first segment it appeared that there might be minor problems with the cakes on ramp 3, with some positions not appearing to fire or finishing late – leading us to wonder if the morning’s heavy rains had had an impact. This first segment ended with large volleys of nautical shells, to cheers from the crowd as this is something that has been missing so far this year! In fact, many of the segments featured nautical shells, demonstrating that it is possible to use these even when the ramp 5 pontoons are in place.
There was a good variety of shells used during the display, but not quite the diversity used in the display by HC Fireworks. I found the display design was a little bit repetitive, with the same kinds of patterns and shells used several times. Also in some places we had effects from ramp 3 that were much brighter than the shells above or we would have loud cakes ending musical tracks that were more serene. Guillaume had mentioned in the interview that he has somewhat of an Asiatic style of design and this was evident a few times where a large shell would be the only item firing, allowing the audience to appreciate it without interference from lower-level effects.
The highlight of the display, for me, was the segment that used the Tanya Tagaq, an Inuk throat signer. The music was atmospheric and the fireworks included all sorts of sound effects with whistles and salutes and other noise makers of different types, including ground level salute (presumably manufactured by HFI as Guillaume had hinted during the interview). This was really something different to what we normally see.
Other portions of the display were less successful, with an imbalance between the different levels, with seemingly long periods of time with no low-level effects at all. I wondered if there were problems caused by the rain as ramps 3, 4 and 5 seemed to be less active than I’d have expected and at one point in the display we had more than 20 seconds of dark sky. Fortunately, everything seemed to work correctly for the finale, which was powerful, though the apotheosis was a tad short. The audience rose to their feet and cheered when the display was over.
Hands Fireworks Team in the Salon des Artificiers
I met with Michael Lutz of Rozzi’s Famous Fireworks, competing for his second time in Montreal and the 7th for the company. Michael last competed in Montreal in 2015 and, since then, designed the opening show in 2017 as well as the closing shows in 2018, 2019 and 2022. For various somewhat complicated logistical reasons, Rozzi were only brought in as a competitor around the February/March timeframe, rather than the end of last year. This presented some challenges as Michael was also competing in the Gold Vestale year in Cannes – his show being fired just last weekend. However, Michael said the Cannes design had been completed before he embarked on the Montreal project. Back in 2015, Michael said it was the largest show he had ever designed but, on paper, this year’s show is even more complex.
Michael noted that, on a complex site like in Montreal, a lot of time can be lost if attention to detail and preparation is not attended to. He noted that he carefully designs his shows such that all the same type of product are in a given rack or all of the candles in a fan are in firing order. He said this extra preparation makes for a faster setup and easier checking and verification, noting that in his show in Cannes last week there were no visible errors at all. Speaking of Cannes, Rozzi were the first American team to ever compete and had won the Prix de Jury in 2019 which afforded their participation in this year’s Gold Vestale competition.
Team USA preparing candles
Michael Lutz, Jim Widmann, Bob Halker, Barry Kulhman, Jim Witterstaetter
Michael said he’s really trying hard for a Jupiter and has put his heart into the display, despite the short timescale and noted that the soundtrack took him back to childhood with memories of listening to his father’s rock albums. He said he had recently bought a purple vinyl copy of a Prince album!
Hands Fireworks, is technically Canada’s oldest pyrotechnics company (founded in 1873 by William Hand) and last competed in Montreal at the inaugural competition in 1985. They returned for the 35th anniversary edition of the competition where they are performed the out-of-competition opening show. Finally, after 38 years, they’re back as full competitors.
It’s interesting to read what George Plimpton wrote in his seminal book “Fireworks” about Canadian fireworks in general and Hands in particular.
Quote from George Plimpton's "Fireworks"
The structure of Hands is somewhat complicated now as there is a relationship between Hands, Lidu (Chinese manufacturer), and GFA (display operator). I met with Guillaume Chartier who has an equity interest in both Hands and GFA, as does Bob Deng, who also has a stake in Lidu. To make a complex story simple, Guillaume stated that Hands is an importer and distributer whilst GFA is a display operator, though Hands does do some displays in locales outside of the range of GFA. Hands’ manufacturing side (they used to have a factory in Papineauville in Quebec), became HFI and they still manufacture some speciality products, though their CEO, John Witherspoon, retired recently. Guillaume said he was proud to use some Canadian-made HFI products in his show and that we would “know which they are”.
Guillaume showing setup aids
Ramp 1 setup
Backrow: Guillaume Chartier, Sébastien Ethier, Dave Sharpe, Craig Steley; Frontrow: Alexandre Louis-Seize, Ugolin Durand-Roy, Darcy Slack, Benoit Ethier, Alain Bouthillier
A perfect summer evening was the backdrop to the debut display by the Belgian company HC Pyrotechnics. It appeared that there might not be enough wind, but, in the end, there was just enough and it was all in the right direction to move the smoke away from the audience.
After a false start caused by the sound controller at La Ronde (more on this later), the display got off to a good start to music by Nirvana. Good use was made of the floating pontoons, though it appeared technical problems caused the left most one to stop firing, fortunately this didn’t really detract from the design of the display at all. It quickly became apparent the high quality of the fireworks being employed in the display, with vivid colours, interesting effects and plenty of studatas. Some of the multi-colour changing pistil shells from Hamex were just stunning – I counted five or six colour changes – this is Japanese-level quality. The pyrotechnic design was well done, with perfect synchronization throughout and good use made of the width and height of the display.
Cliff had noted during the interview that this was really his first time doing a soundtrack with seamless edits between pieces of music, rather than pauses. It was executed really well and, even though the audio was seamless, there were appropriate pauses or rallentandos of the fireworks to give the appropriate breather between the different pieces of music. The theme itself, Legends, is not a complex one, but there was an excellent variation in rhythm and pace between the different pieces.
One of the highlights of the display was the firing of huge fireballs at the end of the “Great Balls of Fire” segment – the heat from which was felt very strongly by the audience. It’s rare that we see such large fireballs in Montreal and they were well done. This segment also included some very nice ghost-effect shells too. There were very serene segments, one outstanding one being “Imagine” where good use was made of kamuro horsetails in shells and bombette cakes together with some nautical flares. However, strobing horsetails were used in a few segments, leading to a bit of a feeling of repetition, though in one segment at least these had colour-changing effects.
Team HC Pyrotechnics in the Salon des Articiers
Overall, this was an excellent display that was well executed. Whilst there were a few small errors here and there, it was very well done with a very broad range of really high quality effects. There was a bit of repetition in places, but this didn’t detract from a good design with a nice balance of high energy and more serene pieces. The fireballs were certainly a stand-out that the audience really appreciated, as was the finale. Cliff said he set out to pick music such that everyone would recognize at least one piece and this was certainly the case, as witnessed by the audience reaction to each song used. This display is definitely a contender for a Jupiter, but there’s still three strong competitors remaining.
As mentioned at the start of this report, there was yet another technical issue with the sound control during the pre-show protocol. Everything was proceeding properly with the correct sequence of the usual atmospheric Vangelis pieces that really set the stage for the display. Usually, a couple of minutes before 10:00pm, Michel Lacroix introduces the company and talks about the display itself, then warns about smoke etc. and finally the countdown begins at 9:59:50. This time, the wrong recording was used and we heard Michel Lacroix giving the initial introduction. Then we heard the countdown overlay this and the music for the soundtrack start. One group of comets fired from the left-most ramp 5 position before the display was stopped, along with the music. After some time to resynchronize the timecode (there’s a couple of minutes required for this), the display commenced properly after the countdown without issue. I have never witnessed as many errors in this pre-display period as I have this year. Fortunately this week’s mistake didn’t detract from an otherwise excellent display. Let’s hope that the quality we have come to expect over the years is restored for the next display.
I met with Cliff Hooge, founder of HC Pyrotechnics (HC being Cliff’s initials reversed) and representing Belgium for his company’s first time in Montreal. Belgium has only participated once in Montreal, in 2002 with the company Hendrickx & Lefeber Fireworks. This was one of the oldest fireworks companies in the world, being founded in the 18th Century. Cliff started to work for them around 1997 when he was a 15 year old student – his job being to help clear-up after displays. Around 2009, Cliff started HC Pyrotechnics and essentially managed Hendrickx for two years. Hendrickx had partnered with Panzera and both companies had collaborated on the manufacture of certain civilian pyrotechnic devices. Following the Enschede disaster in the Netherlands in 2000, it became impossible to maintain a manufacturing facility in Belgium as the permits required to continue operation became impossible to obtain due to residential areas having encroached on land close to the factory. In 2020, Guy Hendrickx passed away leaving no more Hendrickx involvement in HC. Guy had been a mentor to Cliff in many aspects of the business.
HC Fireworks is well known for organizing the annual Knokke Heist fireworks competition, held every year on the beach of the Belgian resort town. Cliff said his company designs and fires the closing show each year and he had tested some ideas for his potential Montreal display at last year’s closing – where the audience had reacted favourably. Since starting HC, Cliff has taken his company though many competitions in Europe, including Monaco, Hannover, Szczecin and Courchevel where the company won the 1st prize this year. Cliff had visited Montreal once in 2010 to see the Surex display and was contacted by the organizers afterwards – they found out how young he was and said he needed to win a few competitions first, which, as the above list attests, he did!
One Shots
HC is very closely associated with Hamex of Slovenia where they provide display design and firing logistics whilst Hamex manufactures items specifically for the displays. However, following a terrible accident earlier this year, Cliff said Hamex were unable to manufacture some of the things he would have liked. Aleš Ham was injured in the accident and is on the way to making a full recovery – his son Domen is on the HC crew in Montreal. Cliff said Hamex are very closely involved with HC and the majority of the shells in the display will be from their stock. Other manufacturers include Luso (Portugal), Ricasa (Spain), Giuliani, Parente and Scapato (Italy) as well as various Chinese manufactures for cakes and some shells. There will be 8″, 10″ and 12″ shells in the display too. The ramp 5 pontoons will be in use but not ramp 4. Cliff said there will be some surprises but didn’t elaborate further. You have to be there on the night to see!
Andy Beugels, Yaron Martens, Cliff Hooge, Laurian Antoci & Domen Ham
Cliff used Finale3D for the design and said he was one of the first users of this program, starting around 2010. For the theme, he said he had picked legendary artists where 70% of the audience would know each song, so everyone should know something and will be able to sing along. For the sound design, he said he was using an approach (after researching on this blog) whereby there would be no break between songs and had tried to do use some unique approaches in the pyrotechnical design. The show will be shot using the fireTEK wireless firing system (designed in Romania) and will have approximately 4,000 cues shot from 80 64-shot modules.
