Hi everyone,

Please use this thread for your reviews/comments for the Canadian display!

Trav.

The Canadian team did a good and enjoyable display which, unfortunately, was probably not executed as it had hoped. Despite all the hard work of a dedicated crew, it is hard to prevent all technical issues which may impact an extravaganza of this size. Beyond them, the pyromusical design was absolutely great in some segments, but I found it more ambiguous in other parts, as was the theme of the show.

La Ronde website and pre-recording descriptive heard during the pre-show have introduced the Canadian concept, entitled 150 Years of Passion, as a celebration of the 150th anniversary of this fireworks company founded in 1873. When I saw the line-up of 14 songs selected for the soundtrack, I thought that it could hardly depict a century and a half of history : according to a quick search I did on Google, the two oldest songs were from 1968 (Lindberg) and 1982 (The Safety Dance); nine songs were released since 2000, three of them being from the 2020s. In recent interviews, the designer emphasized the Passion part of the title with a preference for the plural forms. Passions would have been a very light theme (similar to the Belgian Legends), for sure, but less confusing. Here I imagine a kind of tension between corporative and creative viewpoints which, at the end of the day, didn’t help with the whole endeavor. That being said, the desire to reflect the Canadian culture led to an interesting mix of French- and English-language songs, as well as one Inuk throat singing. In my review of Hands Fireworks opening show in 2019, I criticized the lack of Francophone content (only two out of 23 songs). So there was a significant improvement on this side. Also, I don’t remember about any other Canadian Indigenous song in the Montreal International Fireworks Competition. It is certainly a very rare event.

I believe the first segment of the show was representative of some strenghts and weaknessses of its technical and pyromusical design. Pierre Lapointe’s Deux par deux rassemblés was the perfect selection to start with a powerful, dynamic, and action-packed opening. There was a lot of action across all the firing area and the song ended with an exciting barrage of nautical shells, the very first to burst over the lake this season. However, a number of asymmetries appeared : here, one out of two V-shaped cakes of yellow meteor-headed comets lasted longer than the other; there, different kinds of cakes came into life on the left and right sides of the firing area. Shortly after, when the second song started, there was an erratic candle shooting crossettes on the right side... Similarly, the final part began with several horsetails, with two shells of stars which were obviously misplaced. So there were a couple of mistakes of this kind.

One highlight of the pyromusical design was certainly with the Inuk throat singing, where the sound of several pyrotechnic pieces (whistlers, cracklings, salute-terminated products) echoed the song, as well as the light produced by several flash effects which appeared to be along the third ramp. In a certain way, this segment reminded me the famous Ritmo part made in Montreal by Grupo Luso Pirotecnia in 2005. That being said, I wonder to what extent a such design pleases the audience beyond a certain niche. The single-ascension girondolas at the start of Lindberg were maybe more attractive for some people, and were another example of better aspects of the pyromusical design in this show.

Regarding the technical design, Hands Fireworks had planned to make the most of all available space, especially with several nautical products, including many shells and two carpets of nautical flares. However, during the Daniel Bélanger’s Signal, at the midpoint of the show, the “signal” with some firing positions – mainly along the third ramp – appeared to be lost. This situation caused a number of empty moments (for as long as 15 and 20 seconds during this particular song), and other sequences with no low-level action. Unfortunately, the synchronization of the show was also impacted by a number of hard transitions between the segments of the show, where the musics ended before the pyrotechnic products.

The arsenal included a number of color-changing products and shells producing various effects. It didn’t compare with the Belgian extravaganza but, similarly to the Ukrainian and Portuguese displays, I believe the range of products could have been slightly more diverse to avoid some repetitive sequences of crossettes and peonies. Some shaped shells (hearts, 3D cubes) didn’t appeared in the best way, too.

Overall, this 30-minute display was enjoyable. However, the issues described above may prevent Hands Fireworks to reach the podium this year given what other entrants have delivered, or are expected to deliver. I hesitated between the third and fourth positions for this show. I found the Ukrainian show to be very good but I factored in the conditions of preparation which, I imagine, were harder for the Ukrainian team. I ultimately believe that a third position is more fair for the Canadian team.

My personal ranking so far :

1. HC Pyrotechnics (Belgium)
2. Macedo’s Pirotecnia (Portugal)
3. Hands Fireworks (Canada)
4. Dance of Fire (Ukraine)

Sound system. My review of the Belgian show highlighted the stereo effects I had heard, especially during What a Wonderful World. I had the chance to speak with one of La Ronde’s technicians tonight, who explained me that the new loudspeakers were particularly effective in this respect. She said that stereo sounds were possible with the previous system, but not as much as these new equipments. This is a welcome addition.

Pre-show and countdown. Most problems have been fixed with the pre-show and the countdown, which were perfectly executed tonight. However, as soon as the countdown was over, the lights of the Jacques-Cartier bridge were immediately turned on with their post-show sequence. They remain in action for about 80 seconds, and then they were extinguished again following the same sequence than during the countdown.

Fred

My review of the Canadian display.

http://montreal-fireworks.com/ReportBlog/?p=2128

Weather conditions for the Canadian show were characterized by very high humidity and a display time temperature of 24 C. Skies met with a partly cloudy orientation. The thick accumulations of smoke were moving lightly towards right-hand sections of the La Ronde audience.

The Canadian display was quite enjoyable, despite the technical issues it faced. Honestly, although the intent of the display was well articulated in the interviews, it still left me with some questions as to how this would appear pyrotechnically. Despite this, the still small audience seemed very energized by the show under various respects – I suspect that part of this was attributable to the larger extent of shells used. At the same time, we were treated to a fairly wide arsenal of effects, as well as an elaborate splash of color throughout. Some colors appeared a bit dim, but in general, the palette of color was displayed under a good richness and saturation, and some of these, thus, appeared quite brightly. The pace of the show also worked generally well, in my opinion, and featured some great attempts at soundtrack portrayal, and for effective transitional moments. Product quality was further good, as well, a testament to the symmetry of the shells and, as mentioned, the coloring scheme and overall appearance of the products. Namely, I was very thrilled to see such a wide range and fairly large density of nautical shells used often during the show. The echoing sound from Notre-Dame Street when these go off presents such a unique experience that the audience cannot help but be drawn to it. Furthermore, there was a high concentration of shells in this display, including an increase in the number of high-calibre shells, to the great delight of spectators. The finale was also nicely executed, albeit a touch short and monochromatic - I enjoyed the extent of noise from the volleys of salutes that emerged along low-level to accompany the mid- to high-altitude shells.

Although this was undoubtedly a very much enjoyed display, I think my primary concern was the lack of connection to the theme. At first, I envisioned the show to perhaps transport the audience through some sort of historical journey of achievement, where we would be given the chance to uncover more about was kind of passion the show was meant to elicit. To that end, I had a difficult time trying to demystify any signature component that made up the thematic framework. As such, while, as mentioned, the music seemingly worked well, the selection of such songs was not always clear in relation to the theme, and the theme’s overall meaning appeared elusive, unfortunately. Outside of the theme, the pyromusical design was somewhat limited in the sense that the firing patterns were sometimes redundant. When such repetition occurs, it undoubtedly leaves behind a sense of lesser of complexity from one segment to the other, and so I was under the impression that the many sections of the display did not always come across as distinct and clean. For that reason, the overall display was more reserved in its musical representation, which was probably another opportunity missed to showcase the theme a little more clearly. Some choices of effects to visually illustrate songs also did not always make sense (the show being dominated by shells), and the synchronization with the effects that were actually used was not always obvious. Unfortunately, there were a few extended periods of darkness while the music was still playing, which was likely linked to technical issues. Furthermore, there were many observable periods of asymmetry along low-level.

Overall, this was nevertheless a very enjoyable display, and being a fan of “noisy”, colorful shows, it really delivered. It just would have been a really stunning display if the thematic frameworks carried with it a higher extent of tenacity.

Trav.