Although it is out of competition, I decided to create this thread in case anyone wanted to share their commentaries for this Canada Day opening display.

Trav.

To begin a new season of the Montreal International Fireworks Competition is always a great moment and this year was not an exception. There is a lot of ground to cover - from the extensive bag check procedure at La Ronde entrance, to BEM's performance despite windy conditions - and, unfortunately, I must postpone my complete review due to professional duties.

To summarize my point of view, I always appreciate fireworks displays at La Ronde and this show was a good one, but not the best one delivered by BEM. I am sure that many reasons explain that: poor weather conditions during the setup and just before the display, an "easy going" design due to staff constraints related to Canada Day activities elsewhere, and also the unusual process of pyromusical design. It is my understanding that soundtrack has been performed and, more important, crafted by the Royal Canadian 22nd Regiment. These people may be great musicians, but I am not sure they are the best to design a soundtrack for fireworks.

I shall post a complete review on Friday.

Fred

Bob's video is now up (see sidebar on the forum).

Paul.

Worst show I've ever seen.

Can't disagree with anonymous... Can't even bring myself to watch half of the video. It's a 5 position show for a firing area specially designed for big fronts of fireworks. Panzera shows were not the best shows every year but they atleast tried to make some interesting things. Having only 2 crew members is not an excuse as everything could have been pre-made weeks or even months before the show.

Hope the competition proper starts much better with jubilees show.

Best Regards,
Vander

I was very happy that the display was able to begin on time, in spite of the windy conditions, especially given that gusts were sometimes reaching 45+ km/h at Trudeau airport (highest gust was measured at 52 km/h) toward 9:00 p.m. and beyond, with similar gusts observed at Saint-Hubert and other closely surrounding locations.

Trav.

I thought the show was rather lackluster and some of the audio edits to shorten the selections were just atrocious.

I also froze my ass off which might have added to my malaise.



If you want to download the video file, right click on this URL

http://www.burchcom.com/2015/troops.mp4.html

I seem to have become Anonymous earlier ...

Posted: Jul 2, 2015 13:23:30
Quote

I thought the show was rather lackluster and some of the audio edits to shorten the selections were just atrocious.

I also froze my ass off which might have added to my malaise.



If you want to download the video file, right click on this URL

http://www.burchcom.com/2015/troops.mp4

My report on last night's show: http://montreal-fireworks.com/ReportBlog/?p=1002

A tad lacklustre, but definitely nowhere near the worst ever seen in Montreal - the worst ones having the ignominy of actually being in-competition!

Paul.

if we are still in the 1990's it can be argued that this is not the worst show in montreal yet. Considering that it's 2015 and so much improvement has been done with fireworks technology, this is definitely the worst show in Montreal yet. It won't even do well compared to the shows done in montreal 15 years ago and someone out there could fire a better show with the same budget and even without a digital system. I just see no passion in this show.

Vander

I'm always surprised at some of the criticisms here, especially the fact some are basing their reviews on watching the video online, rather than live at Laronde! I mean, sure, the video is good quality, but you are missing the colours, music, and noises when you watch the show live. Firework shows are not meant to be watched on a computer. The video has not been edited to dub the real music in.

To be fair, anyone who puts up a review or comment here, should say if they were "live" at Laronde or just watched the video of the show on their computer (or worst phone).

The opening night of the 31th season was somewhat odd. With an inaugural display on July 1st, it was the latest kick-off and the first display scheduled on Canada Day in the competition history. Furthermore, whereas it is common, in several countries, to celebrate people who are active within military institutions, it is not really usual here where many Quebeckers have conflicting attitudes toward the Armed Forces. Add in rainfall up to 90 minutes before the show, windy conditions during the display, and a modest attendance (likely because the weather as well as numerous other pyrotechnic events held the same night across the area), the result was a very strange opening night... but nonetheless enjoyable!

As I summarized early, it is my opinion that we had a good display (which lasted 29 minutes 30 seconds), but not the best one made by BEM. I am not sure how the weather conditions have actually impacted the performance – many asymmetric sequences and other mistakes were obvious throughout the show, including an angled cake which erupted on the left side once the soundtrack turned off – but BEM had to work with unusual constraints for this off-competition display. While I don’t have behind-the-scenes cues, it is my understanding from the speeches during the official ceremony, as well as Paul’s and Mylène’s interviews, that BEM didn’t choose neither the theme, nor the soundtrack which was designed by people who don’t have a record of involvement in fireworks, that is, the Royal Canadian 22nd Regiment itself. For sure, that was a way to get an original soundtrack and to bring back classical musics, which were more common in the "old times" of the competition. However, I believe that musics for fireworks is a special genre, carefully crafted with some specific requirements. I thought the soundtrack did not feature as many rhythmic variations as required to allow optimal pyromusical design.

We also heard from aforementioned interviews that show designers decided to make the setup simpler, with a limited number of firing positions, several candles, etc. BEM was apparently short of staff, which is not a surprise given the fact that Canada Day is (one of) the busiest day of the year in the fireworks industry. Actually, the on-site BEM crew was made of only two people (I had never seen that), while the minimum is usually of five, with many teams reaching the maximum of 10 pyros allowed by the rules (as far as I know the rules). Of course, the staff was augmented by La Ronde’s pyro crew (whose involvement was stressed by master of ceremony Michel Lacroix, as he introduced the BEM duo). Unfortunately, these constraints have impacted the density and quality of the show. We saw a more or less limited range of fireworks effects and some repetitive patterns (e.g., a line of fountains lit up on the third ramp with a back drop made of red flares at the beginning of many segments), which were augmented by heavy use of candles. While synchronization was very good during some parts of the display, these candles contributed to make it more "abstract" for other parts. Along the same line, we can’t say that BEM made the most of the firing area. The weather conditions prevented me to take a look at the setup from the Ferris Wheel, but I don’t remember any fireworks pieces launched from the fourth ramp. Nautical effects were also missing.

It is likely that BEM has been brought outside its comfort zone. While I found that narratives were too prominent in their previous shows, I had nonetheless appreciated their literary signature, especially in 2011.

One pleasant thing on opening nights is to meet again with other fireworks fans – Paul, Mylène and Simon to name a few – and to enjoy the whole experience, with the official ceremony and the pre-show musics which led to Michel Lacroix’s countdown. During the ceremony, competition director Martyne Gagnon emphasized the loyalty of the audience given this cold and windy night – which was actually not so nasty as the rain had stopped around 8:30pm – and acknowledged collaboration of various organizations... including the Quebec Transport Minister (who had hoped to move the fireworks competition to another location in a radio interview in June 2014). Is Mr. Poëti reconciled with the event? Then, the Brigadier-General Stéphane Lafaut spoke to the audience and gave a medal to competition technical director, Paul Csukassy. Surprisingly, the Canadian anthem has not been played. The floating stage of the official ceremony had a new look :



However, it was much less pleasant to enter into the amusement park. First of all, people who arrived by bus were welcomed by this fence, which curiously blocked the way to the park entrance. It was still there when I exited the park after the show, so all people had to walk around this fence.



Then, countless – I mean COUNTLESS – fence units are located closer to the entrance. It looks like the surrounding of a conference center where aggressive protests are expected during a controversial political event with the hope to keep people away from the location, instead of an amusement park entrance plaza. Finally, the bag check process – whose main purpose appears to make sure that we don’t try to bring a dangerous piece of food inside the park – was much more extensive than it used to be, each pocket being carefully inspected and some questions being asked. It is like going through the U.S. Customs at the airport! I would recommend to ask "guests" to remove their shoes, so we would have the full experience...

It is a shame that the grandiose entrance is no longer more welcoming, especially since the staff’s attitude at the gate has improved a lot since two years. Whereas employees were previously too busy to chat to each other, forgetting to welcome us, to make eye contacts and to smile, they are now more enthusiast. It is even more obvious when we leave the park. Once again this year, after the show, we were surrounded by two rows of friendly employees doing Hi5 as we exited! So it is about time to reconfigurate the entrance and to revise the check-in procedure. I did visit a good number of amusement parks in North America and I don’t remember having seen something like that.

All that being said, it was a good show and a pleasant night. Now, let’s the competition begins!

Fred