An update following recent developments.
First of all, La Ronde amusement park has announced that it currently plans to start the 2021 season on Saturday, May 22, pending approval by the public authorities. This date is exactly the one provided by the forum poster I referred in my previous message. This is the good news.
Secondly, the possibility to hold large festivals this summer has been discussed on Thursday by public authorities:
https://www.lapresse.ca/arts/2021-02-25/tenue-des-festivals-de-l-ete/l es-organisateurs-veulent-une-reponse-d-ici-a-la-mi-avril.php
Basically, the message of the Quebec government is “it is too soon to make a decision.” Martin Roy, who leads a lobby of large festival organizers, reportedly advocates for the possibility to organize festivals with outdoor gatherings as large as 5000 people.
In my view, this scenario would prevent the organization of large fireworks extravaganzas this summer: (i) I believe the 5000 threshold is way too low to make it commercially interesting for La Ronde to hold a fireworks event; and (ii) fireworks events attract people who congregate on multiple sites, so it is hardly doable to control how many people are on many sites.
This is not a good news, while not very surprising.
Fred