Like you can now see on the Les Ponts Jacques-Cartier et Champlain website, this is the schedule 2015 for the International des Feux Loto-Québec:

Wednesday, July 1
Saturday, July 4
Saturday, July 11
Wednesday, July 15
Saturday, July 18
Saturday, July 25
Wednesday, July 29
Saturday, August 1

Thank you, Julien, for this post!

Some aspects of this schedule are surprising. First, it is strange that three displays are scheduled on non-consecutive Wednesdays. Second, I believe it is the first time that a fireworks display is scheduled on one of the National Day in the competition history, but that remains to be verified (especially for this late 80's-early 90's). I wonder how the event will be coordinated with other fireworks shows in the area, especially in the Old Port, which is "next door". Can we dream about a doubleheader from the same spot? That would be awesome!

This schedule also extend the long-term trend of a late beginning of the competition. July 1 is certainly the latest date to begin the competition over 31 years.

It is a shame that we "only" have 8 displays for a second year in a row (as we were used to 9 or 10 per year). However, it is not surprising: we have no news about a new sponsor to fill the empty spot left by Telus, and the decreasing value of the Canadian dollar doesn't help, for sure.

Nevertheless, we still are very lucky to have another edition of the Montreal competition ahead!

Fred

Thank you very much for posting this, julienlh!

I must say that this is certainly one strange schedule, and I do echo Fred's sentiments concerning its structure.

I suspected a return to eight displays again, as well as a continued late-start to the competition, but I didn't think that it would be so late, and on Canada Day! It will definitely feel odd having no displays for the month of June!

Trav.

Now we can speculate on the competitors and whether the show on Canada Day might me a special out-of-competition opening show? The non-consecutive Wednesday shows will certainly cause confusion, though there is a repeating pattern to them, so perhaps it will be OK. When I first came to Montreal in 1993, the season was 2 months long, taking all of June and July, and now we're down to one - but at least we still get eight shows, so we should consider ourselves lucky!

Paul.

The full schedule of participants will be announced on the morning of March 26th! Watch this space ...

Paul.