Montréal International Fireworks Competition Reports

Official Results of the 35th Montreal International Fireworks Competition

• Gold Jupiter: Grupo Luso (Portugal)
• Silver Jupiter: Howard and Sons (Australia)
• Bronze Jupiter: Atlas Pyrovision Productions (United States)
• Soundtrack: Atlas Pyrovision Productions (United States)
• Green achievement: Howard and Sons (Australia)

Once again this year, the top shows also had the highest cue counts. I suspect South Korea, who also had around 5500 cues, were in 4th position with the final two competitions using around 1/3 fewer than these. In my opinion, it was very close between the Gold and Silver winners and I am happy with the results. This was a perfect year for weather – no rain or storm during any display and even the least cooperative wind didn’t detract from any of the displays too much. Kudos to the pyrotechnic crew at La Ronde for a season with very few technical problems-  not easy when the displays feature such large cue counts. Let’s not forget that Gold Jupiter winning displays of only a few years ago used fewer than half the number of cues compared to displays today. After the awards ceremony, which also featured a 30 minute performance by local artist Gregory Charles, it was announced that the 36th edition of the competition will be held next year. We were then treated to the closing display, put on in collaboration with Rozzi’s Famous Fireworks and Panzera SRL.

25 years of Entertaining You in Style

Designed by Michael Lutz; products from Panzera SRL; FireOne firing with 185 modules and ~6000 cues

The closing show was blessed with perfect weather and probably the largest audience of the season. We were treated to a very high quality display indeed with brilliant products from Panzera featuring dazzling colours. The use of ramp 5 was particularly well done – filling the space in front of the audience to great effect. Despite the fairly complicated soundtrack featuring Quebec hits from the past 25 years, the fireworks matched the music well and we were treated to a great variety of rhythm and pace, building to a traditional Italian finale. Throughout the show the audience enjoyed the excellent cylindrical shells Panzera is famous for – especially their beautiful farfalles, and, new for this year colour changing “disco ghost shells”.

I would like to thank the Karina Thevenin, director of Public Relations at La Ronde, for her hospitality and, of course, competition Director Martyne Gagnon and technical Director Paul Csukassy for their time and gracious hosting once again. Finally, kudos to everyone on the permanent pyrotechnics crew at La Ronde for their hard work and dedication, especially given the short timespan of this year’s competition. To stage 8 pyromusicals that require 5 days setup each in only 30 days is quite remarkable! Thanks also to my fellow enthusiasts for their dedication and support! Last but not least, unconditional thanks to all the teams who worked so hard this year to participate and dazzle the audience!

Mylene Ryan Paul Fred Carl

Shapeshifter

Designed by Stuart Bensley; FireOne Firing with 230 32-cue modules and 6017 cues

Howard and Sons were lucky to have perfect weather during the setup of their fourth show in Montreal and, despite the forecast of calm winds, were lucky to have just enough wind to move the smoke from the low-level parts of their display (upper winds were stronger so the shells were always clearly in view). A little bit more would have been better, but the lower areas were visible well enough most of the time.

It was clear after the first segment had concluded that this was going to be a formidable display. The special circular ramp 5 was put to good use, though the depth of the effect wasn’t quite as dramatic as I had hoped, it was still clearly a different dimension. The use of this ramp allowed all sorts of complex firing patterns and sequences, producing many different shapes – very appropriate given the title.

Circular Ramp - photo credit Fred Bastien

The soundtrack was well done and cleanly edited. Much of the music I wasn’t overly familiar with, but that didn’t detract from the display at all. A nice variety of intensity and pace was present and this was well reflected in the accompanying pyrotechnics, though maybe some horse-tail type effects were used just a little bit too often.

One thing was clear – the quality and brightness of the products used was outstanding and the choice of colours was very appropriate for the music used too. Lots of interesting effects with whirling serpents hurled towards the audience as well as fan slices (in a similar manner to the effect produced by Dragon Fireworks last year). The display area was used to the maximum, though I was disappointed there were no nautical products at all. Given how close the pontoons were to ramp 3, I would have thought that we could have had some nautical shells in the finale.

Ramp 4 was used well as a complement to ramp 5 – also producing circular effects and I think this display had one of the best combined uses of these two firing positions. Synchronization was flawless throughout – and there were many note-synchronized segments. I did feel, though, that there were places in some of the music where some visible choreography was called for but it wasn’t present, though I can’t recall exactly where I had this feeling.

The finale was magnificent in the way the different layers were used and was one of the largest and most enjoyable of the competition this year. The audience, which appeared to be the largest of the season, rose to their feet and gave the team a well deserved standing ovation. For me, this was clearly the top show this year. It will be interesting to see how the jury reacts, particularly as some of the music was unfamiliar and not clearly related to the theme. We did, however, see many different and interesting shapes!

Team Howard and Sons

A First Walk On The Moon

Designed by Paul Masson; FireOne Firing with 122 32-cue modules

BEM were fortunate to avoid thunderstorms which circled Montreal during the late afternoon and early evening of their fourth participation in Montreal, with perfect weather, and wind, conditions for the display itself.

Marc had promised a strong start and that was indeed the case, the first song ending with finalé-like intensity. Narrative elements of the Apollo program (from Kennedy promising to go to the moon, the launch countdown and audio between mission control and the Apollo-11 crew as well as Neil Armstrong’s famous speech on walking on the moon) were cleverly interwoven into the soundtrack, though in a couple of places the music was a tad loud. The soundtrack itself certainly captured the spirit of the times, as Marc had also promised, and it was well done though one or two of the transitions were a little bit fast.

The pyrotechnic design was somewhat simplistic, though, again as Marc had mentioned in the interview, as there were no special effects, not structures nor anything out of the ordinary. It was a bit disappointing that nothing was done with the launch countdown narration nor anything to mark the launch in Space Oddity – I would have expected at least some flights of girandolas. As there were no pontoons nor use of ramp 4, the range of effects was a bit limited, though BEM used many very colourful slice cakes which contained all sorts of different products, a memorable one being serpents bursting to bombettes of strobes. Synchronization was good throughout, but there were places in the music where the rhythms suggested they be marked with fireworks and this was not the case.

The products used throughout were of good quality with bright colours and interesting effects and the firing patterns were sky-filling, thanks especially to the fan cakes of bombettes and wide fans of shells on ramp 2. I did find some of the tableaus a bit similar, though, ending in mini-finales of kamuros. In fact, there were quite a few finales throughout the display, creating an expectation on the real finale that wasn’t met unfortunately. Whilst the finale was good, it didn’t distinguish itself enough from some of the other intense moments in the display.

Overall this was a well-done and very enjoyable display – particularly for the off-site audience due to the shell sequences used. The theme was interesting and the soundtrack was well done, cleverly weaving in the narrative sections. The audience certainly enjoyed it but I think the design was just a bit too ordinary for the level of competition this year.

Team BEM

Sprite of the Jungle

Designed by Stephen Pelkey and Matthew Shea; Pyrodigial firing with over 500 FM-16 modules and ~7000 cues’ VisualShowDirector scripting

For their fourth appearance in Montreal (previously Atlas had competed in 1995, 2003 and won the Gold Jupiter in 2012), the team were blessed with perfect summer weather and, despite the mid-week slot, a large and enthusiastic audience. The showers and thunderstorms that had been threatening for the previous two days failed to materialize, allowing the crew to assemble this large and complex display.

"Maltese" Tower

This was a highly anticipated display, especially given the presence of the vaunted “Maltese Tower” so it’s worth discussing this first. For various reasons, it was not successful. Though the wind was in a good direction, the location of the tower on ramp 2 allowed the smoke from ramp 3 to somewhat obscure it from time to time. The wheels on the top of the tower were generally successful, though the products struggled to fire vertically with enough oomph to give a symmetrical effect. The modules on the side of the tower firing horizontally were not successful. I wasn’t able to discern any patterns at all and the products were just too small to be really visible against the shells above and one-shots from ramp 3. In the end, I think it would have been better if all of the horizontal firing product had been placed on ramp 5.

The soundtrack was really well done with excellent mixing and transitions between songs with a good variety of pace and rhythm and without the feel of being a clichéd “Disney Children’s” soundtrack. The audience definitely enjoyed it too, especially those who have children. I was disappointed in some of the sequences, though, where the music was very rhythmic but the fireworks chosen were items like falling leaves and other effects that are not really time-cued. At other times, I found there wasn’t sufficient interplay between low-level and high-level effects, especially in some places where there were just volleys of three shells being repeatedly fired.

The products used in the display were outstanding, except for those mentioned on the tower. Fantastic colours and effects and the 12″ Italian shells from Guilliani were breathtaking. Kudos to Stephen for designing these into the show in such as way as we could appreciate their magnificence! It was also great to see so many studatas as well as the interesting ghost-effect shells.

Synchronization was perfect throughout with many on-the-note sequences (though I missed seeing the position-accurate piano sequence Stephen had mentioned to me). However, I had reported on the Atlas display in 2012:

I also noted that the synchronization, though good and consistent, was just off by a fraction of a second. Maybe this was due to the distance I was from the sound system – perhaps further back (with a longer audio delay) it was right on.

I noticed the same issue again this time. At least it was consistent throughout the display. However, the sequencing of giant hearts rising from ramp 3 was really great and caused gasps of amazement from the audience!

The finale, as expected, was magnificent and was by far the longest of the season so far and was done with great taste so we could appreciate all the Guilliani shells in their glory, as well as the brilliant one-shot sequences below. The audience were deafened by alternating volleys of whistles and cannonades and rose to their feet and cheered and gave the team a well-deserved standing ovation.

This was an excellent display and is a very strong contender for a Jupiter, despite my criticisms above. The team had worked hard to put on this massive display, having a late start due to a slow border crossing. Five days goes by very quickly when something this complex has to be assembled and it’s kudos to the team for what they achieved.

Team Atlas Pyrovision Productions

Stay Tuned

Designed by Pedro Gonçalves Concept by Vitor Machado – FireOne UltraFire firing with 190 modules and ~5500 cues

20m floating ring

For their fifth participation in Montreal (2002 (silver Jupiter), 2005, 2008, 2012 (silver Jupiter)), Grupo Luso were fortunate to have perfect weather for their complex display, with just enough wind to disperse the smoke. The large audience had high expectations, given Luso’s reputation for creativity (a suspended ring in 2002, a dome in 2005 and “pendulums” in 2012) and were rewarded with a 20m diameter floating truss, as well as a platform on the lake near the audience for a DJ.

As expected, this was a complex display with many interesting details scattered throughout the display. As the theme was music from TV shows some structure had been created by grouping these into thematic elements. But, outside of this structure, there were inserted humorous touches, such as the run of fast horizontal gerbs across ramp three to the iconic “meep meep” sound of the roadrunner from the famous cartoon. Other elements included rotating gerbs on the circle and the tellytubbies’ symbols fired as one shots – though these weren’t as successful as the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 countdown earlier in the show. Letter mines spelling out HEL LOO worked very well during the tellytubbies segment. Luso’s famous gold kamuro comets to blue mines forming a breaking wave sweeping across ramp 3 were employed to great effect during the Blue Planet sequence. Girandolas were used during the X-Files music and I was happy to see the flights of rockets used.

The soundtrack was extremely well edited and put together with everyone knowing at least some of the music, though there were some omissions of classic TV theme tunes (Cheers, Hawaii Five-O to name but two). The inclusion of snippets of narration as “news breaks” to the music from the BBC World News were also very well done and added to the entertainment value. However, I found the DJ section at the end of the display, though well sequenced pyrotechnically, somewhat unrelated to the theme, even though it was pointed out to me afterwards that this represented the musical guests typical of late night TV shows. The DJ looked tiny on the lake and the spot lights were used at the wrong time at one point. I would have preferred a slightly shorter display and a better balance between low and high level effects.

This was definitely a show for the audience at La Ronde, with an emphasis on creative one-shot firing patterns (which were extremely well done with perfect synchronization). I found the high-level effects were good sometimes, but lacking in other places, with too much reliance on triplets of scrambling comet shells. A site like La Ronde needs large calibre shells and this is an area Luso typically lack. For a La Ronde audience, this is less important, but I have a feeling the people off-site would have been less impressed with this display.

All criticism above aside, this was most certainly an excellent display. The soundtrack was fantastic, given the difficulty imposed by the theme and all the creative touches in the display certainly added a lot. The finale was powerful, but that lack of large calibre shells does take a little bit away. The audience definitely loved the display and gave the team a well deserved standing ovation. Most definitely a contender for a Jupiter, but there’s still some strong participants yet to shoot!

Team Grupo Luso