I met with Alfio Vaccalluzzo, the chief designer of his company’s second display in Montreal. Based in Sicily, they gained fame with a memorable display at the 9th International Symposium on Fireworks, held in Berlin in 2006. Vaccalluzzo’s highly anticipated debut in the Montreal competition garnered them the Bronze Jupiter in 2012. They also won the “people’s choice” award that same year in Montreal.
For their 2017 display, they decided to focus on a more traditional Italian theme which represents a tribute to their native Sicily. Alfio and brother Alessandro were responsible for the design and choreography with Alfio responsible for the first track of the music and Alessandro the rest.
95% of the fireworks used in the display are produced by the family’s pyrotechnics business and the remaining 5% are Chinese items for some of the low-level effects. A total of 2500 one-shot devices are being used of several different calibres up to 45mm and mounted in an interesting rack system that allows the angles to be easily adjusted:
Several hundred Roman Candles are also used with their timing specially designed to be synchronized to the soundtrack. For enthusiasts of large calibre shells, there will be around 100 8″, 10″ and 12″ with twenty of the latter. The total cue count is around 3500 and the display is being fired, as was the case for the opening show, with Moneti’s PyroLeda system, which Alfio proudly announced is made in Italy!
Alfio said he was particularly looking forward to seeing the finale, which will use a special Vaccalluzzo Gold effect and he was also looking forward to Bizet’s Carmen. He said he was a particular fan of Neapolitan music and especially of artists like Luciano Pavarotti. While satisfied with the result for their debut display (particularly the public choice award) he said the team were going for Gold but that also he hoped the best display would win. The entire display was also visualized with the ShowSim simulation software.