Already we’re at the end of the competition proper and it was with a mixture of joy and sadness that I met with Edouard Gregoire, chief designer and founder of Arteventia in 2013 as well as Gabriel Legrand who also was deeply involved in the production of the display. Edouard had previously worked for the renowned French pyrotechnics company Lacroix-Ruggieri.
Since founding Arteventia, the company has competed in many competition and gained an international reputation due to their 1st prize displays at the Pyromagic festival in Szczecin, Poland, as well as at Knokke Heist, Belgium. They also won at the Danang International Fireworks Festival in Vietnam in 2023. They have also competed in Macao, Cannes, Pyronale in Berlin and many other places too. The company had visited Montreal in 2018 to see the closing show where they met the organizers and so the idea of competing here started to germinate and the first thoughts for a theme entered into Edouard’s mind.
Before getting to the details of the theme, some technical details of the show. The team are using an interesting firing system from Italy called Pyromac. This consists of very slim 16-cue firing modules that connect to a master module that allows up to 30 of these to be connected.The master module also has two 16-cue modules internally, is wireless and this connects to the main master. So the overall system is a hybrid of wired and wireless.
The hybrid nature of the system allows for fast setup of the display site and the compact nature of the firing modules is a boon when assembling effects that will sit atop a crane (more on this later). The display itself will use a total of 98 firing positions distributed across all the ramps! Ramp 1 will have the usual 5 positions; ramp 2 will have seven main positions; ramp 3 will have 9 main positions, a huge 33 sub positions (including the three access ramps), plus two more supplemental positions at either end. Ramp 4 will have an outer circle of 24 positions and an inner circle of twelve and there will be five pontoons forming ramp 5. As if these weren’t enough, there will be two scissor lifts at the left and right sides of ramp two as well as a 40m high cherry picker in the centre for 360 degree effects!
In total there will be 5500 cues used, which is the most of any competitor this year! The fireworks themselves are almost entirely Italian in origin, the main manufacturers being Pirico/Parente, Panzera and San Pio. There will be some of Arteventia’s only line of Chinese products, but very few. Interestingly, there will be no cakes used of any type with Edouard noting he had paid particular attention to smoke accumulation in the design of the display and the use of all the ramps.
Aficionados of large shells will be thrilled to hear there are more than 80 in the 200/250/300mm calibre with 18 of these being Italian 300mm! These will have all sorts of special effects and there’s one segment in the soundtrack (Apollo – Thomas Bergersen) that will feature these extensively. Despite the multitude of firing positions, there will also be plenty of nautical products, too!
The theme, which translates as “Twilight” in English, represents how humanity changes at nightfall as dreams come into play and it is divided essentially into three parts, with the laser sections forming the division between the “acts”. The music is a variety of styles from atmospheric, through epic, electronic and vocal and will represent the different thematic sections of the display with the final section representing love and with a clin d’oeil to the opering ceremony of the Paris Olympics, which takes place the day before the display. Edouard said that the interaction with the local laser company had gone well and he was pleased with the simulations they had sent him.
Edouard had done all of the sound editing of soundtrack and had also used Finale 3D to help with visualization of some parts of it (though the entire display is in the simulation – he noted that some parts are better rendered by the imagination of a knowledgable designer). Gabriel had also helped with the pyrotechnic design of the display. In terms of the overall design, he said he had begun in December and had it essentially completed by the end of January. He noted that this display is the company’s most complex of the year, though their July 14th display in Marseille might have been technically larger in terms of the products used and the firing site, but it is a different kind of display. He said he’s not too stressed to be competing in Montreal and noted how good it is to have a competent local crew provided by La Ronde to help with the setup. Indeed, François Leger, La Ronde’s most senior pyrotechnician noted how well the two crews were working together and how they were ahead of schedule, despite the complexity of the display. The weather forecast for the next few days, including display night is perfect, so we just hope there is sufficient wind blowing in the right direction for this highly anticipated entrant!