Hi everyone,

After a very weather-eventful day, please post your reviews of the Portuguese display here. Hopefully, the extensive rainfall from the thunderstorm families earlier this afternoon would not create any technical issues for the team.

Trav.

Severe weather issues have been the backdrop of this very good performance of Macedo’s Pirotecnia. In addition to thunderstorms, tornado alerts have been issued for the Montreal area, one of them being specifically for areas along the St. Lawrence river. The rain stopped shortly before 7pm and the wind cleared the sky for near perfect conditions at the time of the show (as Travis had predicted in this forum), but I was afraid that so much water could impact the integrity of the show. It is obvious that a small number of firing positions didn’t come into life, causing asymmetries, but not so much more than in some displays set up in dry conditions. However, these conditions certainly depressed the size of the audience. La Ronde looked almost empty when I arrived around 7:30pm, most rides were not operating, and many (most?) food services were closed.

It is interesting that 4 years after the award-winning “Stay tuned” extravaganza based on musics from TV programs, and performed by Grupo Luso Pirotecnia, another Portuguese entrant decided to design its show around the theme of radio! With “Tune in,” Macedo’s Pirotecnia is not the first participant in the Montreal competition to refer to this media. In 1997, Weco had a show entitled “Radio Days” (or “Les beaux jours de la radio”), starting with the morning alarm clock and offering a day of programming from “WECO station”, including a trafic report. So I was very excited to find how Macedo’s Pirotecnia would revisit this theme.

The pyromusical design was excellent, with this creative and well-organized theme. On the 4th ramp – the roof of a control room which could be imagined as a radio studio – there were a large structure in the shape of a radio microphone and an “On Air” sign, which both lit up each time the two radio hosts were speaking. The Portuguese national colors clearly appeared when the part dedicated to national musics began. However, a couple of times, the intensity of the pyrotechnics was stronger than the musics, for example during the narrative introducing the Portuguese block of songs.

The soundtrack comprised 23 segments of various styles, some being included more extensively – especially towards the beginning of the show – than others. Generally speaking, I found excellent the mix (the transitions) from one music to another. The narrative (two co-hosts who spoke French perfectly) was well done and always heard in combination with some fireworks. This narrative was helpful to communicate the theme of the show at the beginning, but I feel that some segments could have been removed as they didn’t bring so much to the show. Given the atmosphere conditions early in the afternoon, I had a good laugh when the woman co-host said that we had had an incredible summer day!

The synchronization was excellent throughout the show, with some note-synchronized sequences.

The technical design of the show was well done, with pyrotechnic products across all five firing ramps. The pyrotechnic density was very good. As reported above, some firing positions didn’t work, but it is not clear to what extent these problems are related to the thunderstorms. Also, I was a bit disappointed no to see any nautical products, in contrast with some of the previous shows of Macedo’s in Montréal. Some firing patterns were repetitive, especially the asymmetrical angled-to-vertical chase sequences towards each side of the firing area, followed by converging angled chase sequences towards its center.

Also, the pyrotechnic material was a bit repetitive too. I didn’t see a lot of complex pieces of fireworks (beyond some color-changing effects), as multi-break shells or shells with several effects. The size of these shells was not extremely large, the maximum diameter reported being 8 inches.

I would say that I felt highly engaged in the display during the first 12-13 minutes, as well as the last segments. However, I was somewhat less entertained for a certain amount of time, the show being a bit repetitive. A such feeling of repetition also appeared in my reviews of previous Macedo’s displays in 2010 and 2017. The theme of the radio was interesting and promising, but I feel it had been used mainly to mix a wide range of musics, without a very clear outline – except the Portuguese segment – in contrast to Grupo Luso Pirotecnia in 2019 and the memories I have from Weco’s radio show in 1997. That being said, Macedo’s Pirotecnia did a very good show.

It could be a contender for a Jupiter award, but I feel it is too early to say.

My personal ranking so far :

1. Macedo’s Pirotecnia (Portugal)
2. Dance of Fire (Ukraine)

ENTRANCE AND PRE-SHOW MUSICS. The pre-show plays an important role. It sets the stage and it brings the audience in the mood. Starting with “Chariots of Fire,” other Vangelis’ musics are scheduled after the national anthem to build anticipation for the show. For a second night in a row, this scenario was executed in a chaotic way (this week, “Chariots of Fire” played three more times in a row, a long silence occurred before the countdown). Fortunately, the lights of the Ferris Wheel were synchronized with the countdown. Nevertheless, I believe the state of the pre-show needs to be fixed, to secure this important part of the experience.

Furthermore, as far as I can remember, ticket holders for the Silver section could enter through both gates located on each side of this central part of the grandstands. It is no longer the case : last week and once again this week, all these people have to go through the “west” side (near the Pirate Ship/Condor rides), the “east” side being for Gold section ticket section only. It does not make sense as the Silver section is, by far, the largest one and the Gold section has another entrance near the chicken food stand. The attendance has been very modest for these first two shows, but I anticipate an issue of crowd management later this season whether it does not go back to the former procedure.

Fred

Here's my review of this very good display:

http://montreal-fireworks.com/ReportBlog/?p=2065

Paul.

Severe thunderstorms and heightened tornado potential were the highlights for this display day, ranking among the most severe weather conditions to be present during a fireworks day in this competition’s history. Numerous severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings were released through the course of the afternoon. The tornado warnings meant that Doppler radar detected the presence of rotation within their parent severe thunderstorms and/or storm spotters/eyewitness observations suggest that rotation was detected. Ultimately, three tornadoes touched down during the afternoon of July 13th (Mirabel and Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, and one previously near Ottawa, in Barrhaven). Rotation was further observed in the Vaudreuil-SW West Island corridor. Thankfully, conditions dramatically improved by late-afternoon, with mostly cloudy skies, a temperature of 21 C by and during display time under moderate humidity, though with WSW winds blowing the smoke towards right-hand and partially central sections of the La Ronde audience.

The display itself was a very enjoyable one put on by Macedos of Portugal. It featured a fair diversity of effects and offered a selection of music that was very familiar to the (modest) audience that had been present on Notre-Dame Street. The color richness was stronger in this display than what had been featured in the previous one, by the Ukraine, but there were still several sections where a more reserved selection was employed. The theme, “Tune In” that this display was based on, while light, opened venues for some particularly effective transitions. And indeed, it did, for we were treated with some particularly energetic songs that brought the display to life in elaborate ways and even had some audience members dancing along with them. As such, there was a strong interaction with this show. Under several circumstances, the general appearance of the display, perhaps through the kind of theme and musical selection employed, did make me reminisce other displays that used a similar framework in the past – the most obvious would be Italy’s “Jukebox Memories” nearly exactly a decade ago, in 2013. Being a hard-core enthusiast of 1990s Eurodance, I sometimes found myself being immersed into this show. Some personal favorites were “Better Off Alone” and “One More Time”.

The technical and pyromusical designs were generally well implemented. To that end, there were many sections that featured a very careful balance of low- to mid- to upper-level content. Oftentimes, the low-level comets would burst brilliantly to support the sequence of shells that burst in a delightful succession above. In addition, the transitions offered a good range of emotions to be explored in this display, which was important when representing a theme such as this one.

My more negative points are not numerous nor overly significant, but there are some attributes worth mentioning. In particular, possibly related to the powerful thunderstorms that occupied the afternoon previously, there were several moments of asymmetry observed along low-level, especially at the far right (our right, on Notre-Dame Street). Indeed, there were a large number of moments where the right-hand firing position was inactive, leaving only the central and left-hand sections more consistent. I also found the soundtrack editing a little disproportionate, with some songs lasting for an extended period of time, such as “Walking on Sunshine”. In that respect, there was some degree of imbalance in the pyromusical design, but I felt that perhaps more songs could have been included if the longer songs were shortened a little more effectively. At the same time, there were several periods of repetition. This limited the thematic representation and, at times, undermined somewhat the signature elements featured in some songs.

Nevertheless, this was a very enjoyable display, and I suspect that it will end up being one of the more engaging ones this year because it seemed to connect well with the audience through the soundtrack. The fluidity of the display worked well, too, offering effective transitional points in the process. The finale was just awesome, carrying with it the correct length, color and intensity! Just a pity that some firing positions did not come to life when they should have!

Trav.