Ukrainian Fire for the hearts of Canadians
Designed by Tatjana Burdiak, Soundtrack by Tetiana Kuchuhura; FireOne firing with ~3500 cues.
The 37th Edition of the Montreal International Fireworks Competition is set against the backdrop of many difficult challenges. An ongoing war in Europe, not the first one since the competition started, but the most intense for some time; immense forest fires in Canada – already 9 millions hectares burned which is 11x the the 10 year averages expected by this date; unprecedented heat – the four hottest days globally were recorded this week alone. Not only global challenges, but the first competition without Martyne Gagnon as director and the first time ever that a display was cancelled. Last week’s opening show was not held due to a forecast of poor air quality due to the ongoing fires in the north of Quebec.
All of the events and challenges above contribute to setting the expectations for the first competing show – and the first time a team from Ukraine has been invited to participate. Previously, attendees would studiously look at the weather forecasts and radar for threats from storms or wind, but now we have to look at the air quality forecast too. A participating team from a county actively at war where the supply chain is completely disrupted. Dance of Fire have competed, and won, in various competitions before, but never one where they were unable to ship products from their home country.
Canada has a special place in the Ukrainian diaspora as it is home to the second largest population of Ukrainians outside of Ukraine itself. Indeed, the team consulted with friends and family who live here on what would be good Canadian music to include in the soundtrack.
Due to the cancellation of the opening show, the season’s normal protocol was moved to this week with the president of La Ronde, Sophie Emond, essentially taking on the role previously filled by competition director Martyne Gagnon. This threw the timing off a bit as the usual pre-display music that plays after the speeches but before the fireworks starts had a couple of minutes of silence. As the countdown terminated, the lights of the Grande Roue were not extinguished for a couple of minutes. Despite extreme heat and humidity and the flicker of lightning in the distance, a few drops of rain abated and we were left with a perfect evening with good wind strength and direction, no smog and a decent sized audience, but certainly not packed. Probably the heat and humidity as well as the decision to hold the displays on Thursdays rather than the usual Saturday and or Wednesday did not help, as witnessed by the announcement in the late afternoon of tickets on sale at half price.
The display itself was enjoyable and well synchronized and the soundtrack was very well appreciated by the audience. The mix of Ukrainian songs with both English and French Canadian tunes worked very well, better than I expected. Good use was made of the floating pontoons of ramp 5, though one of them appeared to be reversed, though this did not really impact the display. As anticipated, this was a “small” show and there was not a great variety of shells seen, nor many of large calibre. However, the one-shots and candles and effects cakes were of very good quality. Despite the show being somewhat small, it did not feel sparse and so there was always plenty of action, particularly in the final two pieces, with a good finale to the music Burn It to the Ground by Nickelback. The penultimate piece, by Eurovision Song Contest winners Kalush Orchestra was also very well done. The audience enthusiastically cheered the Ukrainian team and I suspect there were many of their compatriots in the audience. This really was a very good effort by Dance of Fire under what must have been very difficult circumstances and they should be congratulated heartily!
Politics is usually not part of a fireworks competition but did make a small appearance in this display, with a narration in English and French thanking the people of Canada for their support of Ukraine and a wish for victory and freedom. This is understandable due to the current circumstances, but I hope it does not become a regular feature. I expressed some disquiet a few years ago when a team competed under the China/Hong-Kong banner rather than just “China” – and we have seen cases where we had Canada/Quebec as a designation too. The good news, though, is that fireworks are a pan-cultural phenomenon and serious efforts are being made to have UNESCO declare them as intangible cultural heritage. Lets hope this succeeds and they continue to bring joy to their audiences, no matter where they are in the world.