Official Results of the 35th Montreal International Fireworks Competition
- Gold Jupiter: Grupo Luso (Portugal)
- Silver Jupiter: Howard and Sons (Australia)
- Bronze Jupiter: Atlas Pyrovision Productions (United States)
- Soundtrack: Atlas Pyrovision Productions (United States)
- Green achievement: Howard and Sons (Australia)
Once again this year, the top shows also had the highest cue counts. I suspect South Korea, who also had around 5500 cues, were in 4th position with the final two competitions using around 1/3 fewer than these. In my opinion, it was very close between the Gold and Silver winners and I am happy with the results. This was a perfect year for weather – no rain or storm during any display and even the least cooperative wind didn’t detract from any of the displays too much. Kudos to the pyrotechnic crew at La Ronde for a season with very few technical problems- not easy when the displays feature such large cue counts. Let’s not forget that Gold Jupiter winning displays of only a few years ago used fewer than half the number of cues compared to displays today. After the awards ceremony, which also featured a 30 minute performance by local artist Gregory Charles, it was announced that the 36th edition of the competition will be held next year. We were then treated to the closing display, put on in collaboration with Rozzi’s Famous Fireworks and Panzera SRL.
25 years of Entertaining You in Style
Designed by Michael Lutz; products from Panzera SRL; FireOne firing with 185 modules and ~6000 cues
The closing show was blessed with perfect weather and probably the largest audience of the season. We were treated to a very high quality display indeed with brilliant products from Panzera featuring dazzling colours. The use of ramp 5 was particularly well done – filling the space in front of the audience to great effect. Despite the fairly complicated soundtrack featuring Quebec hits from the past 25 years, the fireworks matched the music well and we were treated to a great variety of rhythm and pace, building to a traditional Italian finale. Throughout the show the audience enjoyed the excellent cylindrical shells Panzera is famous for – especially their beautiful farfalles, and, new for this year colour changing “disco ghost shells”.
I would like to thank the Karina Thevenin, director of Public Relations at La Ronde, for her hospitality and, of course, competition Director Martyne Gagnon and technical Director Paul Csukassy for their time and gracious hosting once again. Finally, kudos to everyone on the permanent pyrotechnics crew at La Ronde for their hard work and dedication, especially given the short timespan of this year’s competition. To stage 8 pyromusicals that require 5 days setup each in only 30 days is quite remarkable! Thanks also to my fellow enthusiasts for their dedication and support! Last but not least, unconditional thanks to all the teams who worked so hard this year to participate and dazzle the audience!
