For the fourth time this year, a fireworks day faced some thunderstorm threat, including strong to severe thunderstorms. The appearance of thunderstorms on this night was historical under several regards. First, there has never been this many fireworks days spent with thunderstorms in and around the area in a single year. Second, there has never been back-to-back fireworks days where thunderstorms made an appearance, and to that end, never making an appearance on consecutive nights so close to display time (July 30th and August 3rd). Even the Belgian display narrowly missed the July 21st severe thunderstorms.
In my initial weather analyses presented on both predawn August 2nd and August 3rd, it was suggested at the time that some discontinuity in the thunderstorms and convective rainfall could occur in time for this display. Despite later follow-ups on August 3rd hinting that this would become less likely in light of more persistent lift, it was good to see these breaks, indeed, defied the odds and actually come to fruition when we really needed them to. Of course, that was not the end of it, as light rain persisted practically 10 minutes into the display, but more especially as more thunderstorms later appeared following the display later in the evening and during predawn in isolated fashion. With fairly close lightning strikes, strong winds, and significant rainfall, I became nervous that this would cause potentially substantial issues for this display. Ultimately, my fear of technical issues being a legacy of these rather strong thunderstorms was put to rest, for it became apparent that seemingly everything was remarkably still in working order as the display unfolded.
Skies remained cloudy for the display, and the air was saturated from the thunderstorm’s heavy rainfall, increasing the likelihood for thick accumulations of smoke. Following the early-morning rainfall, Severe Thunderstorm Watches appeared, and even a Tornado Warning in Eastern Ontario, leading to an actual tornado touchdown yet again in the Ottawa area. Winds were quite light and somewhat variable in direction for the show, pushing the thick smoke accumulation clear to the right of the La Ronde audience, but by the 20-minute mark, the smoke started drifting towards those on Notre-Dame Street as a wall. At saturation, the temperature was 18-19 C for display time.
This was an absolutely brilliant and thrilling display with such excellent craftsmanship. Much like the American show, this one featured many interactive soundtracks, some of which evoked particularly strong emotions for the modest crowd present. The display began serenely but quickly exploded with a delightful burst of color, seemingly out of nowhere! Much like for the American show, this opening was similarly showing great promise for what was to come.
The sequencing showcased throughout this display was just amazing, and there was hardly ever a dull moment, much like in the previous display. The small audience was thrilled to hear the appearance of certain popular songs, and so expectations were quite high to see how well the pyrotechnics would follow suit. Indeed, they did not disappoint – we were often treated to a spectacular arrangement of effects that gave the songs a very mesmerizing and sometimes operatic appeal, but also brought out musical elements symbolically under some circumstances. The pyromusical design was, therefore, almost flawless. To that end, I found that all levels of the display were effectively used, from low-altitude to high-altitude, and there was a right balance between tranquil and faster-paced segments. I was especially emotionally-drawn to “Sound of Silence”, probably being the most emotional segment of the year alongside “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” in the Belgian display previously. Stunning nautical devices were further carefully used in this display, especially in the concluding segment with the “dancing fish” effect and nautical shells! Product quality was just outstanding, as displayed by the color richness and magnificent appearance of the shells. Although I hoped for a more colorful finale (very colorful finales rare this year), the finale itself was just awesome and came quite strong for those final 63 seconds!
At the more negative side of the spectrum, I again honestly had a difficult time grasping the thematic framework of this display. The musical choice was clearly enjoyable and so well represented, but it was difficult to fully understand how this choice related to the theme. I got the impression that the display was intended to be something like a representation of a radio broadcast or the like, taking us through a musical journey through different decades - like Portugal’s “Tune In”; I immediately felt this notion when the show would be briefly interrupted serenely with low-level flares to let the audience hear previews of upcoming songs, and with some reminder of the original artists of those songs. In light of this, while I obviously enjoyed the display, I think that I would have enjoyed it so much more with the original versions of the songs used; somehow, this affected the extent to which I enjoyed the display from one section to the next. For that reason, I felt more drawn to the American display than this one, even though the American display had a light-ish theme. For the songs themselves, much like for Belgium and Canada, I think that the show would have benefitted more from further soundtrack editing, allowing for shortened versions of these songs and, thus, giving space for other songs to appear. Finally, a very minute point, but for several segments early in the show, there was a similarity in the firing style in that segments would begin gentle at their openings, followed by a sudden rush of pyrotechnics. While this works well, it made the display sometimes more predictable from one piece to the next.
Overall, an outstanding show this was with so many memorable moments, but I am not yet sure if I quite have this one ahead of the American display. Thankfully, the weather was cooperative for this highly anticipated performance – probably the most signature aspect of this very memorable fireworks day for me.
Trav.
