I hope that the actual winter storm is not disturbing the setup for the firework display scheduled for tomorrow night and that the show is going to be produced without problem. I will be there (without my digital camera!) and I will write comments in this thread next Monday.

Fred

The Winter storm may have most likely interfered with the preperations, I'm sure. It was very bad all day yesterday, especially the morning hours, and I did take snow measurements from time to time yesterday. I got about 25 centimetres at around noon already. In fact, the next time I recorded, we were almost at 35 cm! I stopped recording from there as I knew it would continue to accumulate. I waited this morning for absolute totals, and to my astonishment, I heard that we ended up getting 41 cm locally. Now you know what I mean by Colorado low!

I'll have more details in the weather thread. In the meantime, those who are going tonight, please be careful on the way there, it is still rather treacherous, as is the sunlight reflectivity off the snow.

Otherwise, enjoy tonight's display.

Regards,

Trav.

Hi guys,

I did attend tonight's display, but I decided to take my car instead of the train......and that was a big mistake. It took me 55 minutes to go downtown, instead of the usual 25 minutes, because of the traffic and the snow removal! I should have known better.......

Anyway, I arrived late at the fireworks and missed the first 8 minutes, so I can't comment on the first portion. All I can say, is that there was music from the movie "Fantasia" (I think) and the fireworks seemed to be well synchronized with it, but since I watched from the Science center, which is relatively far, I don't know if the synchronization was perfect, or not.

There was a segment, about 3 minutes before the end, where there were silvery/white sparkles that made noise, sort of small salutes, along with silver sprinkle, which I really enjoyed. Just before that segment, they sent a few golden palm trees that were real nice.

Sadly, this was my least favorite "finale" of the three displays so far. Usually, they send shells high in the sky for the finale, and some in the lower portion.......but this time, everything was happening close to the ground, with nothing sent up in the sky, high above.....which left me disappointed. The low rockets were nice, but this lasted only a few seconds with moderate intensity.......so I thought this was the start of a build up leading to the finale......but unfortunately, THIS WAS the finale! On top of that, the display ended 2 minutes before 7:50pm....or maybe my watch was 2 minutes late?

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the show and the fact that there was lots of snow on the ground, made the experience a lot of fun. It finally looks like winter, so I'm happy!

I will be back tomorrow, to reply to other messages.

See ya!

Pierre

the music was set to the nutcracker suite, and the show did finish at 7:47, but from what i heard they were only suppost to be 15 mins long anyways.

Pierre,

That really sucks. It's a shame that you got there so late given the fact that the show was 15-17 minutes and you missed practically half of it. That means you went all the way there to see a 7-9 minute show! But I guess that's better than seeing nothing at all! I'm also sorry to hear about the finale. Well, I guess you can't expect too much compared to the calibur of the real competition!

As for the snow removals, yes, there's still quite a bit of cleaning up to do out there and I'm sure that it was treacherous to get around for everyone, as I said before.

Anyways, Pierre, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and experience with us. Hopefully, I can make the final show, on the 24th. Possibly some rain that day. But I'm getting ahead of myself, as I know that will change.

Regards,

Trav.

Hi Guys!

Anonymous,

Yes, I think that those displays are supposed to last 15 minutes, but if my memory serves me correctly, it was 7:50pm when they ended the previous two Saturdays! And yes, the Nutcracker Suite is from the "Fantasia" movie, so thanks for letting me know about the music they were playing!

Trav, my friend!

You're right, at least I did see part of the show and I don't regret going, even if it was just for a few minutes. Watching those fireworks really put me in the Holidays mood. True, that the finales can't be as spectacular as the ones we see during the Summer, for the international competition. It's just that it was not as good as the previous ones....but it was ok!

I hope you can make it on the 24th for the last display, but I do hope it will not rain and spoil everything! Rain during Winter, means trouble.........when it freezes afterwards, it makes conditions difficult and snow very difficult to shovel... and makes it all dirty! Yuck!

Have a great week!

Pierre

Bonjour,

Quelle magnifique soirée! Après cette tempête de neige majeure, le climat était propice à une soirée pyromusicale: une température relativement douce, des vents légers et aucune précipitation.

Sur la base de mes expériences précédentes au Vieux-Port, je suis arrivé environ 10 minutes avant le feu, certain d'avoir une excellente place pour regarder le spectacle, confortablement appuyé contre la clôture du pont enjambant le Bassin Bonsecours. Erreur! Dès que j'ai traversé la rue de la Commune, j'ai constaté que bien d'autres personnes convergeaient vers la patinoire pour regarder la performance de BEM. Tout au long du quai menant à la patinoire, des gens étaient en place. Il y avait du monde partout! Je me suis rendu sur le petit pont, où j'ai rencontré Roger qui était là avec sa famille. Je me suis résigné à m'installer derrière d'autres spectateurs pour regarder le feu.

Et quel feu! La performance de BEM n'avait rien à voir avec celle de Royal Pyrotechnie il y a deux semaines. L'écart était si grand que je me demande si Royal n'avait pas été contrainte d'annuler la mise à feu de plusieurs pièces en raison des vents qui soufflaient ce soir-là. Toujours est-il que BEM a produit un très bon spectacle.

Intitulé "Casse-Noisette", ce feu de 16 minutes était parfaitement harmonisé et synchronisé à la musique de Tchaïkovsky. Le spectacle a commencé avec des fontaines blanches jaillissant le long du quai Jacques-Cartier, où les pièces pyrotechniques étaient installées, accompagnées de bombes d'étoiles de gros calibre. Au cours du premier tiers du feu, un grand nombre de comètes, d'étoiles et d'autres petites pièces étaient lancées verticalement et horizontalement à partir d'une structure placée au centre du quai. Vers la 5e minute du feu, nous avons assisté à une séquence intense pendant laquelle l'espace a été rempli de crossettes bruissantes. Un peu plus tard, on a assisté au tir en éventails de comètes à tête blanche, devenant rouge, jaillissant de chandelles romaines.

L'éventail de pièces présentées était assez diversifié, comprenant des gâteaux de toutes sortes, des mines, plusieurs pièces multicolores et changeant de couleurs ainsi que quelques kamuros dorés. BEM a également eu recours à plusieurs gâteaux de "poissons volants" présentés par cette firme lors de son passage à La Ronde l'été dernier ("cakes of flying fish", dans le rapport de Paul Marriott). J'aime bien cette pièce pyrotechnique que l'on voit rarement et qui produit de petites étincelles virevoltant comme des insectes! BEM n'a toutefois pas ressorti sa structure d'Irdieden, qu'elle avait mis plusieurs mois à confectionner selon les déclarations faites à l'époque par les artificiers de la maison, structure qui ne semblait pas avoir grand chose d'original, pourtant! Le feu s'est terminé par une finale sobre, composée de plusieurs bombes de gros calibre, suivies par des mines et des strobes blancs.

Si les Feux sur glace se poursuivent au cours des prochaines années et gagnent en popularité, la gestion de la foule deviendra rapidement un enjeu important dans cette partie du Vieux-Port. Il était difficile de se déplacer sur le site et l'annonceur ne suffisait guère à convaincre les gens de dégager les principales voies d'accès.

Décidemment, ce festival pyrotechnique en plein coeur de l'hiver semble promis à un bel avenir, du moins si l'on en juge par la présence de la foule samedi soir et par la qualité du spectacle offert, qui témoigne d'un budget autrement plus respectacle que celui consacré par Montréal en lumière au volet pyrotechnique. Avec tous ces ingrédients, je ne pourrai m'empêcher d'y retourner samedi prochain pour assister au spectacle de Concept Fiatlux.

Fred

Salut le monde

J'étions là Samedi soir et j'ai beaucoup aimé le beau spectacle présenté par la firme BEM. Cà se voyait que cette équipe avait préparé ce feu pyro-musical avec beaucoup de soin . J'aime cà voir une firme viser l'excellence à chacune de ses présentations peu importe leur importance.Cà s'appelle du professionnalisme sur fond de respect pour spectateurs. BRAVO BEM.
Pour mes commentaires sur le feu je ne ferai pas de redondance parce que je suis 100% d,accord avec les propos de Fred que j'ai eu le plaisir de rencontrer sur les lieux mêmes du naufrage de sa caméra.

Malheureusement je n'y serait pas Samedi prochain...L'an prochain je vais m'organiserr autrement.

Roger

Pierre,

I suppose it was worth it. Even if you saw one little sparkle, it probably would have made you happy! After all, this is Winter.

Although end of September to end of March is the most depressing and agitating time for me, especially December to end February, except Christmas and New Year's anticipation, of course, it's good to know that fireworks are still being fired here in Montreal!

As for the weather, I'm positive that the forecast will change back over to snow as the temperature is very much favorable for any type of precipitation, especially since it's near the border. Judging from the low accuracy and actual reliance on the long term forecast, I'm willing to say that it will change, though it's not always the case. The rain, in general, is both good and bad. You have already pointed out the bad things about it, I see! It's true that the rain in Winter already makes it hazardous when it spreads on the surface of the Earth. Since the ground is already cold , the rain will solidify more readily, but not right away like freezing rain, which requires supercooled rain droplets to pass into a layer of freezing air just about the surface where it immediately freezes when it comes in contact with the ground after going through this layer and then spreads along practically anything it comes in contact with. The "typical" appearance of rain in the Winter is different, but is vulnerable to freezing fast as the temperature drops at night.

Yes, it can be messy and make it more treacherous than it already is when it freezes and when it forms over snow, but the good thing about it is that rain helps clean up things, although it causes slush since the temperature is above freezing. But then again, sometimes it is warm enough to keep it in its liquid state rather than freezing, depending on the insulation effect at night, such as clouds. Also, snow gets all black and dirty, regardless, on the highways, so it's not so bad, though I do agree with you that the frozen part of it can make it slick.

Take care, my friend!

Fred and Roger,

Thank you for your reports. It sounds like you guys also had a good time, like Pierre!

By the way, did you guys see any shell of shells in the past 3 displays? I'm just curious as this is a nice effect that comprises of both suspense and amazement!

Regards,

Trav.

there were no shell of shells in the last show, i didn't see the other 2. I was hoping to see some coz i love this effect

Hey Anonymous,

Thanks for the response. Yes, the shell of shells effect is an excellent effect and is, in my humble opinion, probably one of the most popular. I enjoy this when it's used at the beginning of a finale for building up and then on the increase during the finale along with other effects, of course.

Trav.

Royal did use shell-of-shells. Flying fish cakes are a deception in a show professional by cause of it being a consumer piece.