Hello everyone,

Please post your reviews/commentaries of the Canadian display here.

Trav.

I'm still gathering my thoughts on the show (which was very good!), but I can definitely say that it was the most debris-filled display I've been to in my four years of living in Montreal.

This chunk of a shell landed on my wife:


I, however, made a more practical use of it:


Please note: I was trying to look pouty and fashionable (Zoolander's "Blue Steel" comes to mind), not like I just killed and ate someone. Good thing I'm not a model. Now my hair stinks and I probably have an elevated risk for several cancers, but my regrets are few.

Wind had traveled North-West towards Rue Notre-Dame, and was quite slow, which effected very little of the display during some segments. The effects were well seen even with the smoke slightly in the way.

Garden City Display has taken this competition to a whole new level. This display, will be bringing Michael and his company, a jupiter. Taking either first or second (if Italy does better). Some issues seemed to have occurred at 10:00PM, causing a delay with no countdown, no show, nothing. At approximately 10:05-06, Michel Lacroix announced the countdown and the show started. The opening segment was a superb start with gold shells filling almost all areas of the sky in front of us. To narration from his daughter I believe. The narration was difficult to understand, but knowing that Michael tried to create a warm welcoming narration in french, it made some people smile to hear a young child rather than just a blunt voice from an adult. The second song, had a lot of happiness in it, with the mixture of colourful shells of all sorts, whistling rockets, strong comets and mines, the synchronization went very well. Ça fait rire les oiseaux, is what made the crowd really into the show, bringing back good feelings of hot summer years ago. Rainbow effects made the "arc en ciel" part of the song go superbly well. By this moment, I was blown away. Garden City kept pushing the boundaries of perfect synchronization compared to the other displays we've witnessed this summer. I'm Walking On The Sunshine, had the use of fans of comets on Ramp 4 and yellow shells varying in different sizes. Most of the breaks from those 3's and 4's were good enough to give your chest a good thump, including the bigger shells. Beach Boys added a great touch to the summer feel. Me being young, I grew up to my dad playing this type of music, so it brought some cheer into my view of the display. The breaks of shells and mines kept in synch with the beat. The Temptations was a good classic as well my parents made me listen, so I knew every part of the song and what could have gone in it. My words seemed to have spoke out and every accent of the song went with the fireworks. Splish Splash had some candles on Ramp 3 that were aimed across the water that bounced to the other side of the lake. The crowd around me had some interesting reactions. The best part of this display, is undoubtedly Thunderstruck. The fireworks went too well with the song. Salutes, noise, ground salutes (if I'm not mistaken) in synch with the drums. Shells with salute inserts as well above. The comets had INCREDIBLE synchronization that made me question how it was possible Michael could have done something so well without using any visualization software to get an idea of what it would be like. The finale, had power, but unlike the Croatian finale, it lacked energy. Barrages of red and green shells filled the sky, and most of the shells that took place in the finale came from Ramp 1, gave off tremendous sounds, but didn't have the usual finale I recall seeing them have in 2008. With every bit of synchronization, I believe that is what paid off and made the display was it is. The choice of songs was just too well. The entire theme of 4 Seasons was something unique in the competition this year. It had flavours of different song eras and just blended well. Too many segments to count, I think people had to be there to judge. The use of the ramps were impeccable and the lances to the left and right of Ramp 2 (which had the Canadian flag, Looney, and Leaf) just created something we didn't see before this year. As well as the Niagra Falls effect. Nautical effects were just enough, as they were scattered all around the lake and the force bombarded my chest and colours covered the lake.

I recorded the entire 30 minute display, so for those who couldn't make it. Click the link below. Please ignore the guy laughing at the narration. It was kind of rude to mock it out loud, but to each his own. I need to remind myself not to get a spot near the smoking section. I was surrounded with a couple arguing aggressively and chain smokers. It's quite hard to find an open spot to get a nice shot of almost everything when you arrive at 9:15. It would be a waste of time to arrive there at 8:30 and wait an hour and a half, plus I had finished work at 9, so that's not entirely my fault. All that said, I gave Garden City Display a tremendous applause after video taping the display and so did everyone around me.

Entire display: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwMhUtraiIk&

If they don't receive a Jupiter, I'll fall to my knees. No other firm this year has done such an immense variation of music and theme like this. Big round of applause to Michael and his team! Truly a remarkable display we witnessed and will be a strong contender in this years competition.

1. Canada
2. Croatia
3. Spain
4. USA

Saluteness

Pleasant weather conditions took place for the highly anticipated Canadian display, with temperatures remaining faithfully at 24 C for the late-evening (no jackets or sweaters were required this time), moderate humidity (making it feel like 27 C), light ESE wind tendencies, and a few clouds (though skies became partly cloudy near 11:00 p.m.). Because of the ESE wind direction, the smoke, as forecasted, moved towards sections of Notre-Dame street, mostly North of the bridge, as is evident from the posts above, as well as in my own footage. Fortunately, smoke accumulations were not significant enough (owing to moderate humidity and adequate wind speeds) to mare significant portions of the display, though the show often appeared murky, and, at times, lower sections of the display were concealed by the smoke. As a result, the majority of the display could be seen adequately, especially for those folks closest to the bridge.

This was a strong performance by team Canada. In spite of the near six-minute delay (it would appear that 2013 is the year for technical problems), the show commenced in a quaint manner, just before a somewhat more dramatic opening to the Spring section. Throughout the display, we had seen a fair diversity of effects and listened to an enjoyable and relevant selection of music that corresponded to a theme that was based entirely on the four seasons that are characteristic of mid- to high-latitudes. For myself, I appreciated the conceptual design of the display, mostly with respect to how the transitions flowed from one segment to the other, as well as how one section (season) segued to the next in a similar manner. The narration provided by the young girl to introduce seasons was brief enough to not detract too much from the display. My personal favorite sections, as most of you may have already guessed, were those that illustrated the Spring and Summer. The choices for effects were mostly appropriate for the different seasons (i.e. nautical sequences for “Splish Splash”, shells of smiley faces for "Ca fait rire les oiseaux" or the falling leaf shells used to open the Autumn, shells of silver glitters for snowballs, etc.), and the interplay between them was often fantastic. In particular, the nautical shells were memorable when present during "Splish Splash", as well as the sequences of shells of salutes, yellow/red photoflashes (effectively used, especially in "Thunderstruck" ), and double-ascension girandolas. As such, the display featured several creative, exciting and energetic segments, and choreography was very good throughout the show, most notably with the low-level sequences. My absolute favorite segments were "Thunderstruck" and "Splish Splash". "November Rain" was also very perfectly delivered, especially with the waterfall effect incorporated, and it was the segment that, for me, exemplified symmetry the greatest in this display (and possibly so far this season).

While the display was very enjoyable, I found that its design/complexity was somewhat limited by some lack of adequate representation through the use of effects, mostly during the early part of the display. In one instance, “Surfin’ USA” was not as effectively portrayed as it could have been, since mostly the same effect (go-getters, or variations of it) was used throughout much of this soundtrack. A similar kind of pattern also existed, though to a lesser extent, in “I’m Walking On Sunshine”. On a related note, colors were generally diversified sufficiently, but there were some points where a larger mixture would have been welcomed, and there had also been some repetition with respect to the use of the mid-level “star” shells (those shells used for the finale). At a few moments, there had also been some imbalance between high- and low-level activity, and some noticeable asymmetry at low-level occurred during the opening segment of Spring, and again during the opening for Autumn. Fortunately, however, these occurrences were not too numerous. Synchronization was very good, though at a selected "few" points (again, mostly early in the show), I thought that the degree of precision was slightly off. The theme was strongly adhered to, though, as I expressed previously, it probably would have been more appropriate to conclude the display with Spring and Summer, rather than Autumn and Winter, especially due to the nature in which the Spring and Summer sections had been devised (this is more a comment that is centered on personal taste, as opposed to criticism)! The finale had the right level of pace for its concluding section, but it, like Spain’s, would have been better if all components had been combined into one! All in all, these negative points are relatively minor and, thus, did not significantly influence the general enjoyment of the display.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable and successful performance produced by the Canadian team. Surely a contender for an award this year!

Trav.

Also some video footage that I’d like to share:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRth-MqyzH8

Duncan_S, thank you for sharing those photos. Where we stood, no debris was present, and this was likely because we were positioned closer to the bridge, where smoke was less prevalent. Still, the photos you took really remind me of what occurred during France of 1993, though that was a little more dramatic, given the spatial coverage of the debris at the time!

Trav.

I have posted the video of the Canada show here: http://www.burchcom.com/2013/canada.html

For those who want to download your own copy, right click on this link and select "save target as" ... http://www.burchcom.com/2013/2013canada.mp4

The file size is 1.28 GB

Bob

Five years after his debut display Aurora, Garden City Display Fireworks was back with another atmospheric theme (please see P.S.1 below), Four Seasons. Being the penultimate contestant of a season considered below the average by some fanatics, many of us anticipated a potential Gold Jupiter winning display, which would make the triumph of the Canadian troika (along with Royal Pyrotechnie and Fireworks Spectaculars Canada) completed. Many supporters from Royal Pyrotechnie purposefully attended the display, joining wives and children of many members of the Canadian crew, whose enthusiasm became vocal as the pyros walked through the grandstands from the floating stage to the control room.

While we have already enjoyed the Four Seasons theme in the Montreal International Fireworks Competition, namely with Marutamaya (Japan) in 2002 and with countless shows featuring Vivaldi’s famous musics, this one was truly innovative with songs related to each season, distinguished with short and pretty effective narratives (despite that I couldn’t understand few words, possibly because unadjusted, too loud sound system) delivered by children, including designer Michael Bohonos’ daughter. In contrast with previous shows, this one didn’t start with an anti-climactic narrative : instead, an introductive segment had been planned before the spring narrative. No fireworks appeared when children introduced us to the spring and summer seasons, but setup pieces of red and green leaves (including a maple leaf) and a white bird came into life during the fall narrative, and shells burst before the end of the winter one. Children quickly came back once the finale over to only add "Je vous souhaite une bonne nuit!". Overall, I found the narrative effective and it didn’t detract from a very good display.

At this advanced stage of the competition, I think the Canadian entrant has been the most successful to fill 30 minutes without significant repetitions, featuring a very broad range of pyrotechnic effects. Pyromusical and technical designs were done to make the most of the firing area and to pyrotechnically represent each season.

The spring part, beginning with a series of tree-shape setup pieces of gerbs, was festive and noisy, with whistling serpents and smiley-face shells, among others (as well as the trendy, presumably Zaragozana’s, mushroom-shape three-colour shells). Great word-synchronized rainbow sequences appeared on the music of Ça fait rire les oiseaux; they were produced with Magic Fire electronic devices embedded in skymines (or a similar product).

The summer part was especially spectacular, with low-level effects on the music of Splish Splash, with surfing meteor-headed comets (while they would have been more appropriate in the previous Surfin’ USA), barrage of nautical shells, and a fan of blue meteor-headed comets, which ended in a dramatic thunderstorm sound, leading us to the music of Thunderstruck, with spectacular loud and bright effects : we saw strobes and shells of photoflashes, followed by bright flashes along the third ramp, and candles of tourbillons ending in salutes, then the brightest single flash effect I have ever seen (apparently shooting from candles on ramp 3), causing me to almost close my eyes, as we are not supposed to watch lightning anyway!

The fall season was obvious with many shells of green, yellow, orange and red falling leaves. A flight of double-ascension girandolas, blue nautical flares and a waterfall, tightened between scaffolds above the second ramp (that is, higher than in 2008), were also featured in this part.

The winter part began with a very short segment of Gilles Vigneault Mon pays (we only heard the famous refrain), followed by three more segments. In addition to the anticipated white effects, produced with strobes, stars, comets and horsetails, we saw phantom shells of various colours, and shells of white comets bursting in small bunches of crackling thin stars, as well as a finale made with sequences of shells of orange (then purple, then red, then green, and then blue) stars with inner white comets, reminding me the Grupo Luso signature finales, which are typically made of successive monochromatic sequences of small-size shells of stars.

Unfortunately, the pyromusical design has been impacted by countless technical failures which caused several asymmetric segments. Each of these failures were minor and didn’t detract from the show, but taken together, they were pretty obvious. I wonder whether these problems were related to the late start of the show, which actually began close to 10:06pm. Furthermore, the design was less clean-cut than in the Spanish and Croatian shows. Sometimes, we could not fully appreciated some pyrotechnic effects because they were mixed with too many things. That was the case of the double-ascension girandolas, which often fascinate the audience, but their impact was lost as they appeared along with shells of falling leaves above and behind a (asymmetric) barrage of cakes of blue stars.

As I have written above, the soundtrack was augmented with an interesting narrative. Mixing between segments within each seasonal parts was carefully done, and pretty spectacular with the transition between Splish Splash and Thunderstruck. However, I believe that the show would have been improved by edited segments of some songs (Ça fait rire les oiseaux…), but that may be just me. Synchronization with the soundtrack was done in different ways throughout the performance. Some sequences were word-, voice-, percussion- and note-synchronized; in other segments, synchronization was a little more atmospheric.

Overall, that was a very good performance from Garden City Display Fireworks. However, it is not obvious for me that the Canadian team surpassed the Croatian and, especially, the Spanish ones. Positive and negative aspects were not the same in all these shows. The Spanish and Canadian displays were more climactic and delivered their themes more effectively than the Croatian one. Their soundtracks were interesting and well-done, though may have been improved with more editing along the road. Richness and vividness of colours was slightly better with Zaragozana. Synchronization appeared more flawless in the Spanish and Croatian displays. The Canadian show suffered of several technical problems causing asymmetric patterns, but I think it featured a broader range of products and was slightly more creative with its pyromusical design. So it is not obvious to rank them...

All that should not make us forgetting the great and creative segments of the show. Michael Bohonos told in interview to Paul that he devoted about one year to design this display. I think the diverse and creative segments of this show reflected all these efforts. Garden City Display Fireworks is, for sure, a contender for a Jupiter. We will know the decision of the jury in less than one week and, maybe, it can lead to the triumph of the Canadian troika!

My ranking so far:

1. Zaragozana (Spain)
2. Garden City Display Fireworks (Canada)
3. Mirnovek Pirotehnika (Croatia)
4. Merlin Fireworks (England)
5. Arthur Rozzi Pyrotechnics (United States)
6. Fireworks by Ian Riedle (Australia)
* Vulcan Fireworks (Hong Kong)


Fred

P.S.1 : I’m sure this atmospheric theme pleased to our in-house meteorologist, Trav. Following the display, designer Michael Bohonos, who obviously reads this forum, interestingly looked around and asked us where Smoke was! Paul provided the appropriate answer. But it leads me to believe that Trav should be at La Ronde instead of on Notre-Dame street!

P.S.2 : Duncan_S, I imagine that you don’t want to see the Canadian entrant to win the Green Achievement Award!

P.S.3 : Before the show, I purchased a (advertised 24 oz) glass of limonade at the Kool Limonade kiosk located near the Jardin des Étoiles. It looks attractive, but think twice : it’s actually a glass filled of ice, with few limonade which obviously tastes more water than anything else. $5.50 is pretty expensive for a glass of ice…

P.S.4: Thank you to the second crew of ride operators who turned off lights on La Spirale last night.

Excellent display by the Canadian team. Good design and interesting collection of products... Loved the salutes! I actually really liked the narrative. It was different and sweet! Synchronization was pretty good despise the technical problems, which I personally found them not too obvious. Finale was very good, but the salutes at the end should've been more powerful and louder!

My rankings so far:

1. Croatia
2. Canada
3. United States
4. England
5. Spain
6. Australia
7. China

Hi Fred,

Thank you for your comment.

This was, indeed, a display that I enjoyed and appreciated immensely. As I mentioned in Paul's interview thread, I was (since February) very much anxiously awaiting to see this particular display with respect to its overall design, specifically in how it would represent the various climatic elements that engender each season. Fortunately, from our vantage point, the smoke did not significantly mar such a wonderful performance!

Like you, I had quickly become dazzled by the "Thunderstruck" segment (not only my personal favorite segment of the display, but also my favorite one of all segments this year, so far), as its appearance and representation were absolutely stunning, in terms of the simulated lightning activity. This segment was truly reminiscent of a violent evening multi-cell thunderstorm erupting following a highly unstable Summer afternoon! There were so many other segments that also really had me immersed into the display, though, as I mentioned above, the Spring and Summer sections were most memorable for me (perhaps aided by the musical choice, and the fact that I love those particular two seasons, as compared to both Autumn and Winter). You will probably not find one who is more passionate about Spring/Summer than myself!

It would have most certainly been an honor to meet with Michael Bohonos, the designer of the display, even if briefly. For me, the four-season approach was very inspiring, as I always like to witness a Montreal fireworks display centered on, at least partially, atmospheric phenomena. Michael surely did a fantastic job with this display, and it was certainly a crowd-pleaser, especially for myself. Unfortunately, I have no means of contacting him, but if he is reading this message - thank you for this wonderful display!

Trav.

My report on the Canadian display: http://montreal-fireworks.com/ReportBlog/?p=802

Paul.