I met with Marc Jouffroy and Albert Rovira, designers of Igual's 2009 show entitled "Odyssey".

As the most rewarded competitor during the previous 24 years, they're certainly not resting on their laurels. Representing one of the largest manufacturers in Spain, they are renowned for the quality of their pieces, especially their nautical shells.

The theme of the display represents a voyage by boat and there will be a 15m high setpiece in the shape of a sail as well as a pyramid for the Egyptian portion of the display. For the technically inclined, they will be using 92 FireOne firing modules and about 2500 cues in total.

Igual has four designers who work on both the musical and pyrotechnical aspects of their displays. For this display, the work began in January. Almost all of the product used will be from Igual, with a small amount of Chinese material.

I was happy to hear there were no issues shipping a 1.1g container to Montreal - and even happier to see the large numbers of 10" and 12" shells being set up. There will also be seven small pontoons forming a "ramp 5" for the display.

Marc is on the left, me in the middle and Albert on the right; behind us are 12" and 10" mortars.

Thanks, Paul. I can't wait for what looks like a promising show!

Fred

Thank you very much for the information, Paul! Go team Spain!!! I love Igual so much!!!

Trav.

Paul, all of your backstage efforts to get us the most information is very much appreciated by all of us. Thank you! Hopefully I'll see you to say 'hi' tomorrow night.

Tyler

You're welcome - I'm making a special effort this year with it being the 25th anniversary - I just hope my real life job doesn't get in the way! At least there's no Wednesday displays to complicate things - but I'm doing the interviews on Wednesdays.

I'll be sat in the usual "photographers row" tomorrow.

Paul.

The theme of the display represents a voyage by boat and there will be a 15m high setpiece in the shape of a sail

This 15m-setpiece may be impressive. As a comparative, take a look to these pictures of Lacroix-Ruggieri's 12-meter towers in the 2004 display:

http://www.montreal-fireworks.com/tower.html

Though we have already seen higher setpieces, it is much more than most pieces we usually see in a firework display.

Fred

Hey Paul, can you get any photos of the setup? Or at least an update of the ramps? Or at least a good photo that shows a few pieces of the setup?

Isn't it true on Ramp 1, and average of 20 10"-12"shells are setup behind each blast shield?

Pat

I have some setup photos of some of the shows, but not all of them. "Interview Wednesdays" are really too early to do any justice. Each blast shield can accommodate around 10 12" shells, 20 10" and 35-40 8". Since there's normally 5 blast shields, this gives a max of about 60 12", 100 10" and 200 8" shells. There are a couple of "portable" blast shields that can be used if there are more large shells required.

I'll post setup pictures at the end of the competition.

Paul.

Are you serious?I only thought there would be two dozen large shells behind each blast shield. Portugal last year used portable blast shields if I'm not mistaken. Does Portugal still hold the record of the most fireworks used in the Montreal Fireworks Competition? Or is it IPON?

From what I learned last year of the closing display. There was only enough room on Ramp 1 for people to pass through, the entire site with little space to walk was filled with mortars and racks.

I wonder if any photographer is willing to take new photos for: [url=http://www.internationaldesfeuxloto-quebec.com/fr/a_propos_des_fe ux/art_et_technique.aspx
]http://www.internationaldesfeuxloto-quebec.com/fr/a_propos_des_feux/a r t_et_technique.aspx
[/url]

Because the photos ( http://www.internationaldesfeuxloto-quebec.com/fr/a_propos_des_feux/mo dalite_de_participation.aspx ) of the setup and stuff were taken in the 90's. If anyone has noticed, in one of the photos you can see instead of the big sign saying "L'International Des Feux", it says "International Benson & Hedges".

Pat