I attended the press conference for the 2010 edition of the competition yesterday evening. I was hoping the themes of the displays would be announced but this information was not provided. I did, however, get to ride on the new roller-coaster "Ednör" which is built on top of where the Salon des Artificiers used to be and can report that it is a very intense and thrilling ride - completely over the Lac des Dauphins. The other good news is that it does not impede the view of the fireworks at all.

Here's the official press release which went out just after the event last night.

Yet more new developments, including the very first "Feu des étoiles",
which will this year pay tribute to Céline Dion
Public invited to vote online for their
favourites at L’International des Feux Loto-
Québec presented by TELUS!

Roch Voisine present for the unveiling of the programming schedule
Montréal, Thursday, May 27, 2010 – This year’s spectators at L’International
des Feux Loto-Québec presented by TELUS shows will have their say, as the
world’s most prestigious light and music show invites the public to vote online!
Participants, in addition to seeking out the approval of the judges who award
Gold, Silver and Bronze Jupiter trophies, will now attempt to win over the public
and earn a truly special prize!

During the cocktail event held at La Ronde, notably attended by Roch Voisine,
it was announced that after each of this year’s performances, spectators will
have until the following Friday at midnight to visit
www.internationaldesfeuxloto-quebec.com and provide their opinion, by giving
the show a score between 1 and 10. Site visitors will also be able to view a clip
of the show and even share their experience with their Facebook friends.

Beginning June 12, participants having received awards from every corner of
the globe for their shows will bring their magic to Montréal, for the 26th edition
of L’International des Feux Loto-Québec presented by TELUS, the largest
pyrotechnic display competition in the world.

Among the participants, there will be a competitor from Poland – a first in the
history of the event. The honour of representing Chopin’s homeland belongs to
Surex, a company that won the “public’s choice” award last year at Festival d’art
pyrotechnique de Cannes.

Other competitors this year include: representing Taiwan, San Tai Pyrotechnics
(Bronze Jupiter in 2001); Italy, Pirotecnica Soldi (Bronze Jupiter in 1995);
Portugal, Macedos Pirotecnia (participated in the Montréal event in 2006); the
United States, Western Enterprises USA (first time); Canada, Fireworks
Spectaculars Canada (participated in 2007); Sweden, Göteborgs
FyrverkeriFabrik (participated in 2005); and, finally, France, BREZAC Artifices
(Silver Jupiter in 2006).

Change in scheduled programming
Because of an unfortunate situation beyond the control of L’International des Feux Loto-Québec
presented by TELUS and involving the international transportation of pyrotechnic devices, a slight
change had to be made to the schedule initially released.
The Taiwan show, originally slated for June 12, will instead be presented on June 19, while the Italy
show scheduled for June 19 will be held on June 12. Please note that the tickets currently in
circulation will be valid for the performance date written on the back. This being said, La Ronde and
the Admission network would like to extend those with tickets for one of the two abovementioned
shows the opportunity to exchange their tickets and thus enjoy the performance for which they had
originally reserved spots. For more information or to take advantage of this offer, ticketholders are
invited to call 514 790-1245 as soon as possible.

Tribute to Céline Dion
In conjunction with La Ronde, Groupe Fiatlux-Ampleman will design the “Feu des étoiles”
pyrotechnical show, a dazzling display that will complement the annual competition and pay tribute to
the brightest stars and their work.
On July 10, 2010, mid-way through the competition, La Ronde and L’International will offer Céline
Dion and her fans a 30-minute fireworks display set to her greatest hits, both in French and in English.
The show will feature highlights from the Quebec star’s exceptional career, just months short of its
30th anniversary.

Stars coming out to celebrate the fireworks
Maxime Landry, Roch Voisine, Mario Pelchat and Lise Dion are but a few of the artists who will once
again give the event their endorsement. Fans can listen to their observations on radio station
Rythme FM .

A public jury
Following a selection process that was open to the public, nineteen fireworks enthusiasts were
chosen to form this year’s jury. These individuals are charged with the enviable but important task of
attending all of the fireworks presentations at La Ronde, evaluating the performances of each
competing firm, and ranking the eight countries that are represented.

Technical details and ticket sales
Fireworks fans are invited to get their tickets now for what promises to be an outstanding competition.
As a new feature this year, tickets are $5 off if purchased in pre-sale up to 14 days before each
pyromusical show.
Reserved seating can be purchased at www.admission.com and
www.internationaldesfeuxlotoquebec.com. Programs and schedules (order of appearance of the
competitors) are available on both of these sites. You can also phone (514) 790-1245 or toll-free
1 800 361-4595 to purchase tickets. For information concerning corporate and group rates, contact
the La Ronde sales office by phone, at 514-397-7777, or by e-mail, at ventes@laronde.com. Please
note that all shows by L’International des Feux Loto-Québec presented par TELUS start at 10 PM.

Sponsors and partners
L'International des Feux Loto-Québec presented by TELUS, offers heartfelt thanks to their inestimable
sponsors and partners: primary sponsor Loto-Québec; presenting sponsor TELUS; collaborative
sponsors SAQ; associate partner Québec Ministry of Tourism; official suppliers Marriott Château
Champlain, Belle Gueule, Agropur’s Fine Cheeses Division, Thomas Marine Group; media partners
TVA and Journal de Montréal; and, official event broadcaster Rythme FM.

About :
The event, which was originally known as Concours international d’art pyrotechnique de
Montréal (Montreal International Fireworks Competition), was launched in 1985. Today, it is the most
prestigious event of its kind in the world.

About La Ronde and Six Flags:
La Ronde is where the sea monster known as Ednör lives; the new
extreme thrill rollercoaster above Lac des Dauphins is named after this strange creature. La Ronde is
the property of Six Flags, Inc., a publicly traded corporation (SIXFQ) headquartered in New York City
and the world's largest regional theme park company with 19 parks located in the United States,
Mexico and Canada.

i wonder when they will be announcing the themes I hope that San Tai' s show will be ready by June 19 Will the videos section come back once the competition starts?

Vander

Hi Paul,

This is excellent news for the Ednor not blocking the view.

Have they relocated the VIP section ? I just hope that the removal of this section will not impede people with a season pass such as I to get tickets the morning of the show because the VIP will go back to Gold and Silver sections...

I may have a solution for your videos that would involve load balancing between your server, mine and maybe rachelita's - if she's still interested, of course ! I seem to have 774,95 GB per month available in terms of bandwidth - that is, as long as my webhost provider does not oversell its capacity and decide to pull the plug like yours have done...

Contact me if you'd like to go forward with that (my e-mail is on my website). I can prepare a basic load-balancing script in PHP in a few days if you don't have the time to do it yourself.

STL

Now that the opportunity is given on the internationaldesfeuxloto-quebec website, it would be interesting to see how spectators score each display as well as to read their individual opinions and thoughts.

I still wish there was an additional participating country in place of the display dedicated to Celine Dion. If anything, the tribute would have been perhaps more appropriate for the closing night - that way, you have a 30-minute finish to look forward to following the awards ceremony (like we used to do) while having a spot for another entrant.

Other than that, as stated at the close of last year's competition, I have a positive feeling about 2010 overall.

Trav.

Sorry for this late post, I was out of town the week of this cocktail-event and busy with a conference right after. Trav: we have the same opinion about this mid-season off-competition show and hopefully it is not going to become a new "tradition". STL: I don't think you should be afraid for season pass holders, I believe that the number of Gold/VIP seats has been reduced due to the introduction of Ednör. On the map available on Admission website, one half of the gold section is now identified as a VIP one.

I note that the Music and Environment awards introduced last year are no longer there. This reinforce my opinion that the latter was only a public relation tool to deal with the environment issue which has been raised the previous year by some media (i.e.: La Presse).

Along the same line, I believe that the new public award is nothing more than another marketing gadget. I don't believe it is a good thing to see La Ronde introducing a such prize which may decrease the legitimity of the jury's decision, especially since the regular Jupiters are justly rewarded by a popular jury. Similar awards exist where a jury is not made of people from the public. The competition in Quebec City is an example of that, though, in principle, voters are only ticket holders or attendants (a piece of paper with a code is given with tickets or by people close to the entrance, I'm not sure to remember well). Without any special mechanism, we could not make any sense with a such prize because there's no mean to know who vote. I study and work with polls since 12 years and I teach a course about survey methods to undergraduate classes. This sort of poll (with a volunteer sample), often praised by some media (i.e.: "la question Canoë" which sounds familiar to most Quebeckers) is exactly what social scientists say to not do. Who are the respondents? How many times to they vote? Have they seen the show they vote for? We don't know. I'm not sure that a contestant may have enough fans to mobilize in a such way that the vote may be artificially oriented, but I can easily imagine some ethnic communities in Montreal playing on pride and other feelings of their members to fuel a large mobilization through various social networks. Ironically, that is exactly what La Ronde did last year to increase vote shares for Le Monstre within the Six Flags' Tournament of Thrills.

All that being said, the most important thing is that a new competition line-up is coming. I'm glad to be among the lucky who live close enough to attend each display and to share these nights with other fans. And... que tombe la nuit, que la fête commence!

Fred