I just noticed on the home page that the 2003 schedule is gone. Does this mean you'll be posting the 2004 version this week? (Sorry to ask, the suspense is killing me lol!).

BTW, I know you're sworn to secrecy, but, that's ok, because I rather not know anything. Please let there be 2 Spanish firms.......Caballer or Igual!!!!!

Regards,

Trav.

If you read the last post I made in the "2004 schedule coming soon" thread, you'll see that I'll be posting the full calendar for this year at 1 minute past midnight on Thursday 29th January - until then, I'm sworn to absolute secrecy. All I can say is, that like last year, there will be 10 displays this year

Cheers,

Paul.

Until the 29th? That's next week Thursday. Only 6 days!

Thanks,

Trav.

Paul

now that the list is really

that means those countries have already prepared their display? right?

It's not quite the simple. The companies competing have actually known since November or earlier last year that they would be coming to Montreal. In fact, some of them have been working on their displays since even before that (since I know someone who went to one of the companies to offer some advice). The deadline for selecting product to display (shells, candles etc.) depends on the shipping dates. For antipodean and Asian companies (Australia, Japan etc.) this could be as early as the end of this month to ensure that everything arrives on time. This doesn't mean that the display itself is completely designed and choreographed at that point, but a good portion of the overall concept will be in place.

The final version of the display might not be completed until just before the competition itself since there is still flexibility in the detailed choreography. For example, large finales contain a lot of shells and these can be reassigned, or at least, a few of them can, to other parts of the display. One advantage of the visualization tools such as Visual Show Director is that it becomes easier to see which portions of the display are overloaded and where there might be "holes".

Cheers,

Paul.

Hey Paul, now that you think about it, these displays require huge amounts of effort and labour. Imagine they start that early and finish almost near the next competition! That's quite remarkable!

Even a great all out finale takes huge amounts of extensive work.

Paul, take for instance the Spanish finale of 2001 performed by Pirotechnia Igual, including the faux finale, how long would you say that would take to prepare? I find it interesting to know.

Trav.

I am always very thrilled when it is time to know the schedule of the Montreal International Fireworks Contest and actually, Paul, you are making a very good job to fuel the suspense! Thank you for this first piece of information: 10 displays. For the 20th edition, I would feel bad if this number has been smaller...

I will try to get an additional info from you: will we have 9 displays under competition with 1 off-competition show, or 8 fireworks under competition with 2 off-competition displays (opening and closing), like in 1999, 2000 and 2001?

Frédérick

All I can say is that there will be two surprises this year - if I answer the question about opening and closing shows, then that might give away one of the surprises ... or not ... I can't say But you're right, the good news is that there are 10 displays and I can also confirm that the dates will pretty much follow the pattern of the last couple of years.

To be honest, I've actually known the identity of the competitors since the beginning of November, more or less. But, given that they're all Gold Jupiter winners, that isn't a particularly difficult thing to guess anyway. That said, there have been more companies who have won the Gold Jupiter than there are available display slots for this year ...

All will be revealed very soon though. Perhaps I should put up a "countdown to the schedule" clock on this site!

Cheers,

Paul.

when u say there will be 2 surprises

r we going to know what the surprises r when we get the list?

If you can't see what they are when I publish the list, I'll write a message here pointing them out. I seriously doubt that I'll need to do that though

Paul.

First, I suspect that one of the surprise is that two firms from the same country will be in competition this year. I suspect that these would be from Spain.

Second, I guess that the second surprise is a 2-in-1 package: two displays for the opening night! A first firm in competition but, just before, a shorter display off-competition, by Panzera or something else like that.

Also, I have a dream but I think that it is not any of the two surprises: to see fireworks launched from the Jacques-Cartier bridge's structure for a display. That would be a great surprise for the 20th edition!

Frédérick

Hmm, perhaps I should have said there are three surprises

Paul.

I am just thinking about another surprising scenario. Perhaps the display (or one of the displays) shown outside the competition would be produced by a firm who has never won a Gold Jupiter but has already given a very good show. By that, I think especially to Pirotec Pirotecnia (Portugal), winner of Silver Jupiter in 2002 with their giant ring...

Paul, the suspense is unbearable!

Frédérick

That's a very interesting scenario you propose.

By the way, the correct name for the the company that did the Portuguese display (incorrectly listed as Pirotec Pirotecnia on the La Ronde site) is Grupo Luso, a consortium of four companies which includes Pirotec Pirotecnia as one of its members. Grupo Luso is also the home of a former employee of La Ronde, Melanie Cagnon, who worked on the fireworks competition for several years. Now Melanie lives and works in Portugal and is doing a fabulous job for Luso.
Luso have a very good website too: http://www.lusopirotecnia.com/

Cheers,

Paul.

To tell you the truth, Paul, the suspense is killing me the most, since I've been asking about it for some time now, but anyways. I still remember you always telling me to be patient! lol

Let me take a shot at a surprise, well maybe not..but I do know for sure that Canada and the U.S will be there! Don't tell me if I'm right or not, but I'm about 90-100%sure about these particular 2 and I'm pretty sure which firms they're going, and usually they're back to back.

Paul, I have a feeling that Holland is one of the surprises, not to mention the possibility that there could be 2 Spanish displays. I agree with Frederick about that.

Trav.

In 9 hours and 30 minutes, all will be revealed ... and, in fact, there is yet another surprise which will be announced at that time too!

It is certainly going to be an interesting season this year!

Paul.

at 9:00 pm tonight?

ure really enjoying this arent u!? hehe

time will be passing fast
after 8:00pm ill be watching American Idol so time will past fast hehe

Paul this will be simulatenously on mondialsaq.com?

Not 9pm tonight but Midnight. The server that runs this website is in California so the posting times on the forum are in Pacific time. 9pm Pacific will be midnight eastern time. The mondialsaq.com site will be updated tomorrow - I have a feeling that I'll beat them to getting the schedule up!

Cheers,

Paul.

damn..
ill be sleeping at midnight

i guess toomorow morning ill check it

Paul, I'll check it out tonight at that very minute! If you'd like, I can do a countdown!

You have no idea how much this is killing me! I've been thinking about it since August or even July last year!

I'll be here at midnight, so I'll probably talk to you about it then!

Enkil, maybe you should just take a quick glimpse at the schedule before you go to bed.

Trav.

I just don't believe it! 2 Spanish companies...Igual and Caballer! I was also right about Holland! My dream came true! Everyone else is a big surprise too!

This is going to be a great year!

Cheers,

Trav.

Congratulations Trav, your predictions about the surprises were the bang on the mark! Now the only thing we don't know (yet) is who is doing the opening display but you're right, it is going to be a great year

Cheers,

Paul.

yeah hehe, i hope ill be able to see them all!

i had hope there would be fredbastien's predictions too hehe

the mondialsaq.com site is finally updated

there, it says

Opening display
LA RONDE
Saturday, June 12

and here its a Canadian display

Don't forget that the closing displays in the past always used to say "La Ronde & Panzera S.A.S." I have it on good authority that the name of the company supplying the fireworks for the opening show (and possibly the design of the display as well) will be revealed later on. In anycase, the pyro crew at La Ronde are Canadian! The closing show is always designed by people from Panzera. As soon as I have more information about the opening show, I'll put it up here.

Paul.

i just realized theres no USA in the list

lol Smoke and i, we were sure they would be on the list

i think the number of displays r limited and thats why theres no USA
and the companies all r indeed gold winners too, i checked it to make sure

this year will be some crazy year thats for sure!

You're right, there is no USA company on the list, and it's not because there wasn't a display slot available - after all, they could have used the opening display for a competitor. The main reason is that there are no US companies that have won Gold in the past that still exist. PPA became part of Pyrospectaculars and so technically don't exist. Rumour also has it (this may not be true BTW) that Eric Tucker will be shooting for Sunny, as he did in 1992 when Sunny won the Gold then.

You will also have noticed that Royal are not competing for Canada, despite winning the Gold last year. So this really puts to rest the popular conspiracy theory that Royal only won last year so that we could have a Canadian entrant in this year's all-gold competition.

Cheers,

Paul.

From my point of view, there are many surprises in the 2004 schedule. First, I am very happy to see two firms from Spain in competition. Caballer and Igual have already performed very well.

Second, for the first time in 20 years, there is no company from the USA. This is a big surprise... but maybe not in another sense. I do not know if Eric Tucker has been invited but, apart from his PPA, there is not a large choice. With the Austin's fiasco of 2002, I understand that this firm has not been invited again...

Third, the competition does not include any Canadian company, despite the Gold Jupiter won last year by Royal Pyrotechnie. I suspect that Royal has received an invitation but refused, maybe owing to other major contracts... From the Mondial SAQ's and Admission's websites, I understand that the opening show would be produced by La Ronde's team, as for the opening in 2001 ( "Passions extrêmes" ).

I underline that this fact bring into disrepute a thesis conveyed last summer by some participants in this Forum and by Georges Lamon. According to them, the jury has been influenced to give the Gold Jupiter to Royal Pyrotechnie because La Ronde wanted a Canadian firm for 2004. Personally, I have never believed this scenario. I was a member of the jury in 2001 and I can not imagine this kind of influence from the organization, which took many precautions to keep the jury outside from as many external and internal influences as possible. For instance, we did not have the right to talk about our evaluations with our fellows.

It will be a pleasure for me to see again these firms, especially Igual, Ipon, Caballer and Weco. The latter had already displayed good shows with well-developed scenarios. I have never seen JNS Pyrotechniek and I am very excited to discover them: I have heard many good words about this firm from Netherlands.

Thank you, Paul, for the suspense! I do not have an Internet access at home. So, one of my friend, a fanatic of fireworks too, talked with me with his cellular phone around midnight and went on your website with his standard phone line. We were very thrilled! And I hope that we will be throughout the next season!

Frédérick

All I can say is that I'm going to enjoy every display to its fullest.

I have a few comments to add in here.

First of all, I am super delighted that there are 2 Spanish firms.....and what's ironic is that there the exact two that I predicted and that I hoped would be playing together. I see why you didn't want to tell me anything, Paul! Maybe because I was guessing correctly! You did a good job building the suspense within me and everyone here. This is a big surprise, VERY BIG, indeed! I never thought that in a million years, that these two would be here together! It's simply amazing. I was looking foward to this since August!

Another surprise is Holland, which I also predicted. I remember them in 1995. They were great!

An even greater event that was a surprise, which I noticed as well as all of us, is that there is no U.S or Canadian firm this year. This is the first year, but your explanation seems reasonable for their disapearances this year. I was about 90-100% sure that these two would be here this year, well because they usually are! Not to mention back to back almost, if not every year. But, that's ok! All these firms are going to do a spectacular job, I know it. It's just instinct.

I thought Italy would also make it, as well as France and China. The other surprises were Germany, Japan and of course an extra Spanish display.

One final comment is about Spain. You remember Igual in 2001, right Paul? I'll bet they'll do that atomic finale again! Probably a great faux finale also. Maybe Caballer too, and perhaps we'll see great heart pounding finales for all displays, as well! What do you think? I think, since we've haven't seen a Spanish display in almost 3 years in July, we deserve to see 2, I guess, lol!

BTW, I don't want to be negative, but the only thing we really have to worry about is the weather! I'm sure it will cooperate, though.

All in all, I'm expecting every display to be very good throughout this year. This is a year you really don't want to miss! After all the years I've been attending the competition, which is sice 1990, I suspect that this one will be one of the biggest, not to mention, tightest, maybe even more tight that last year for all we know!

Regards,

Trav.