Please post your reviews of the Canadian display here!

Cheers,

Trav.

The competition continued tonight with the Canadian entrant, first timer Calgary-based Big Bang Fireworks. Unfortunately, I am sure that their show The Wild West is not the performance the Canadian team was hoping for. It was below the average, apparently for a mix of reasons; the poor weather conditions which occurred during most part of that rainy Saturday may be one of them.

That was potentially a great setup to make the most of the firing area. A circular structure shooting pyros to 360 degrees was lifted up in the centre of the 2nd ramp. A series of five floating platforms, each featuring a device to shoot flames (as high as 30 feets according to some sources), was also located close to the audience. That being said, whereas the setup of each display is typically completed before the dinner, several crew members still worked across the firing area during the evening. The floating platforms have been installed in early night, the circular structure was lifted less than 60 minutes before the show, and two members of the Big Bang Fireworks crew were still on the ramps during the protocolar ceremony (they presumably stayed inside the computer room, under the 4th ramp, during the show). A couple of minutes before the start, I expressed my concerns to some pyrofriends sat around me : for sure, the risk of technical issues increases with a setup completed so late.



Unfortunately, my concerns were justified. As soon as the show began at 10:00pm, I found the opening segment on the famous musics of Ennio Morricone’s The Good, The Bad and The Ugly somewhat asymmetric and lacking of density. But I thought that it might be part of a concept, as the fireworks gained in intensity as this opening segment continued. However, it became obvious in subsequent sequences that many pyrotechnic devices located on the right side (from the audience viewpoint) of some ramps were not fired at the right time, leading to asymmetic patterns and a lack of synchronization. That wasn’t part of the concept, as confirmed with some ultimate volleys of shells and a barrage of mines which appeared on the right side well after the end of the soundtrack, as the Ferris Wheel and the L’International des Feux Loto-Québec sign were lit up. The lack of density became also obvious as some “black out” caused impatience from the audience.

In addition to these problems, the fireworks arsenal lacked of diversity and that was obvious from the range of colours. White effects were really prominent. It is also a shame that the ones and only nautical effects were almost invisible : these kamuros, which were launched during the finale, were too dim to be appreciated given the light in the area.

That being said, the Canadian display also featured good points. First of all, it may be the first display in the Montreal competition to be entirely made of country musics. In contrast with the Chilean show, Big Bang Fireworks crafted a more “regular” soundtrack made of 11 segments. That was a welcome departure from more usual movie or rock musics. For the circumstance, I even wore a t-shirt of Maverick, an exhilarating Cedar Point roller coaster which used to feature country musics (including some from Morricone heard during the display) in the queue area.

The circular structure appropriately came into life during the Ring of fire segment, as well as 4 out of 5 flame projectors located in front of the audience. Being lifted above the 2nd ramp, this 360-degree device was much more effective than the one in the Chilean display. The warm flame projectors were also a nice addition to this tableau. While many people don’t want the designers to make too much from such special structure and effects, I found a bit strange to use them for only one part of the display – and, furthermore, the same part. In my opinion, it was a lack of balance to mix all these special effects into a single segment.

The extravaganza also featured more intense parts, especially on the musics of Risk toward the mid-point of the show, and another Morricone’s piece, The Ecstasy of Gold. But that was not enough to forget the aforementioned problems and the Canadian team only received polite applause from the (small) audience. In a certain way, the feelings I had during the show reminded me the Austrian display in 2008.

My ranking so far :

1. Pirotecnia SPA (Chile)
2. Big Bang Fireworks (Canada)


That was not a typical fireworks night at La Ronde. It was a rainy day in the Montreal area but, following Trav’s incredibly accurate forecast posted on Thursday night, a dry slot occured, beginning in late afternoon and ending about 45 minutes after the display! However, the poor weather conditions had an impact on the size of the crowd at La Ronde, the smallest since a long time. I basically didn’t wait at all to go through the metal detector and to ride L’Orbite, Le Vampire and Le Monstre. Many other rides (including the Ferris Wheel) and food stands were closed. Here is a photograph of the main midway taken at 8:10pm.



And here are the grandstands at 9:50pm, only 10 minutes before the start of the show.



But the size of the audience doesn’t matter as much as the quality of people who surround you. Mylène and Simon are genuine fireworks fanatics and even dream about pyros and fireworks-related people. A photograph was enough for Mylène to make my night. Thank you guys !

-----

The competition will resume next Saturday, with 4 contestants who have already competed once or more often in Montreal. That include the 3S (Switzerland, Spain, and Sweden), whose performances are highly anticipated. With appropriate improvements from its 2010 debut display, the American team may also cause a surprise, as Pirotecnia Morsani did when it came back in 2011. Hopefully, these teams will not suffer of the same conditions than the Canadian one.

My report: http://montreal-fireworks.com/ReportBlog/?p=1151

A good soundtrack that was let down by various weaknesses in the display - maybe some of which were due to the weather conditions on the final day of setup.

Paul.

Largely wet and unsettled weather conditions were present on the day of team Canada’s performance. Early-morning rains gave way to mostly cloudy conditions by late-morning, and by early-afternoon, persistent periods of steadier rain and embedded brief thunderstorms occurred ahead of an occluded front. As Fred stated, although a fair portion of the day was under the influence of soaking rains, a dry slot did appear by late-afternoon and persisted through most of the evening, including display time (even though some light rain showers were reported at St-Hubert airport around 8:00 p.m.). Winds were mostly breezy, and from the East, although they transitioned to ENE into the afternoon and somewhat light ENE to NE winds in time for the evening hours. Despite cool evening temperatures of about 17 C, humidity remained high because of near to complete saturation of the air. This meant that smoke would be building rather quickly, but luckily the winds were just enough to push the smoke virtually directly away from the La Ronde audience. Unfortunately, because of the ENE to NE directional tendencies and (near) saturated air, a thick smoke frequently obscured the view for those on Notre-Dame Street, mostly for those positioned close to the bridge – the closer to the bridge, the worse viewing became. Like the opening display, though, the audience was quite small.
I am deeply grateful to Fred for kindly sharing video footage of the Canadian display (and Paul for posting it here!). It became often difficult to see the fireworks as we progressed into the depths of the show from our vantage point. Rapidly accumulating smoke and unfavorable wind direction combined to produce a large wall of smoke, especially towards the far right-hand sections of the display (our right). At times, very little could really be seen, depending on where you were standing, and at one point, it looked like lightning illuminating a developing thunderstorm!

Unfortunately, the Canadian display heavily suffered from technical problems (possibly, in part, attributed to early-day rains), often manifested as moments of asymmetry and mysterious periods of tranquility when one would expect activity. When the display began, these moments quickly became known, although, as previously mentioned above, it initially appeared that these were merely part of the show and had been purely intentional. However, the problem persisted, and it became apparent that technical problems were occurring. This was especially strong during certain segments - in particular, the “Jolene” and “Remember When” segments were affected with prolonged periods of silence, and those moments leading up to the finale. At times, fireworks continued to be seen after music had concluded, including after the finale.

Apart from these problems, the show had some interesting highlights worth mentioning. One of my favorite segments was “Ring of Fire”. The flames that emerged really added essence and feelings of vibrancy, and I thought that they highlighted portions of that soundtrack rather well. The single-ascension girandolas are always crowd-pleasers (even more than the standard heart-shells) and nicely paved the way for the actual finale, despite the pauses that occurred after their launch. The musical choice was mostly enjoyable and well connected with the theme, “The Wild West”. In addition, the way the music was organized also allowed for some good transitions in pace, as well as changes in the emotional feel of the display. The display did really have a “western” and “country” feel to it, at least through the music. Most notably, I felt the strongest emotional transitions from “Ring of Fire” to “Remember When”, and from “Home Sweet Home” to “I Will Always Love You”.

It is really a pity that we could not fully appreciate the overall pyrotechnical design that was intended. Indeed, many of the soundtrack seemed like they had the potential to be well portrayed. From what I have seen, however, the most dominant criticism would be directed to the lack of color richness, with silver and white being used very extensively relied on and, thus, giving the display a monochromatic appearance. Fortunately, the actual finale was able to be fully executed (or so it seemed), and it was enjoyable but just needed more color diversity.

Trav.