I met with Arnaud Fouriau, founder and chief designer for Lux Factory, competing for their first time in Montreal. Arnaud said he had been involved in fireworks for 27 or 28 year, having been inspired by renowned French companies such as Groupe F.
Lux Factory was founded in 2017 and quickly found their feet competing internationally. In 2018, the company won the best soundtrack prize as well as best design at the renowned Ignis Brunensis festival held in Brno, Czech Republic. In 2019, they won the jury prize in the Festival International d’art Pyrotechnique de Courchevel, France. Adding to their trophy cabinet, they won the coveted Vestale d’argent at Festival d’Art Pyrotechnique de Cannes, France.
Arnaud said coming to Montreal to compete was a pyrotechnician’s dream come true and he was honoured to have been invited to represent France. The company is based not far from the border with Belgium, in the outskirts of Lille and Arnaud said they put on around 120 displays a year, with the largest one being for New Year’s Eve in Brussels. This year’s Montreal display, though, would be their most complex.
The design of the soundtrack essentially forms three parts with the first representing the arrival of technology such as the internet. As much as this was positive it lead to a change in how people communicate and this leads into the second part which represents the break in connections between people that was caused by this technology. Finally, the third part is about re-connection and the powerful emotions that this evokes. When asked if there was any part of the display he was particularly looking forward to, he said that, really, the display is an ensemble and every part of it should evoke an emotional response in the audience. He said he hoped the pyrotechnical design would reflect this too. It will be interesting to see how the four laser segments integrate into a display that’s in three thematic parts. As with most competitors these days, Finale3D software was used for visualization of the display. Arnaud said that he had engaged the services of a logistics company, Jacques Prevost, to help with the organization of the display.
On the technical side, as the company are not manufacturers, they will be using a variety of European and Asian products. From Spain, they are using products from Europla and from Italy products from Parente and Panzera. Arnaud told me they have an arsenal of 250mm and 300mm shells from Parente and many 200mm shells from Panzera. They are utilizing some special products such as mines manufactured by a small French company called ATPM.
All ramps will be used in the display with 15 positions on ramp 3, all five pontoons forming ramp 5 and extensive use of ramp 4. To increase the depth of the display, a nacelle will be suspended from a 45m high crane that provides pyrotechnic possibilities and as far as I understood, there will be pyrotechnic devices all the way to the ground from this aerial position too. The display is being fired using the PyroDigital system and there will be over 4000 cues with around 3000 one-shots. Let’s hope the weather cooperates as the next few days promise to be hot and humid and, yet again, there’s going to be warnings for thunderstorms on the display day.
