I met with Lorenzo and Paolo La Rosa, representing two generations of the La Rosa fireworks family, established just outside of Palmero in Sicily since 1945-46. With a history stretching over four generations now, they are competing in Montreal for their first time.
Previously the team had visited Montreal in 2018 and 2019 to see a competition display first hand as it’s much easier to design a show having seen one in person, rather than just seeing photos or video. La Rosa have also participated in International competitions in Malta (2011) as well as winning first place in both Taragona and Bibao, Spain. They were also one of the companies putting on displays for the 8th International Symposium on Fireworks, held in Shiga, Japan, in 2005. Lorenzo told me they had approached the competition organizers a few years ago indicating their interest in participating. Given their track record of garnering first place in various competitions in Italy, as well as internationally, it is good to see them compete in Montreal.
General view ramp 1 secondary area
The interview was an interesting challenge as I do not speak Italian and the team does not speak much English nor French. Through the wonders of modern technology, we were able to communicate with each other via a translation application on my phone! So I hope I captured all of what they were trying to tell me. They said they are very happy to be participating in Montreal and are not too stressed about it!
One shots for ramp 3
The company specializes in traditional handmade Italian cylinder shells such as studatas and other multi-break shells and we expect to see many of these in the display. Indeed, they have brought a very large arsenal of large calibre shells in the 200/250/300mm size with a total of 130 of these, including fourteen 12″. If I understood correctly their largest calibre cylinder shells are also 200mm. There will be no structures nor set pieces used.
200mm shells being loaded on ramp 1
Paulo did both the soundtrack design as well as the choregraphy and we will have fifteen positions on ramp 3, five pontoons forming ramp five and nothing on ramp 4. The display will be fired with FireOne and has approximately 4700 cues. More than 80% of the products are fabricated by La Rosa, with Lorenzo personally building many special shells for the display. He told me there will be a classic Italian-style finale so we can expect a lot of noise! The rest of the products are Chinese and will include nautical carpet cakes.
Cylinder shells on timing chains ramp 3
For the first time this year, designers are required to incorporate two segments of lasers into their shows and Paulo said he had worked with the local company in Montreal on this design. This was not the case for last week’s Japanese team as the instruction to incorporate lasers had come after they had already designed their show.
The weather forecast looks promising for Sunday so I think we will see a classical Italian display!
Team LaRosa - Paolo and Lorenzo 3rd and 4th from left
