The 32nd edition of the Montreal International Fireworks Competition took a turn tonight, both in terms of attendance and quality of the performance, with the first of the “
3S” contestants (Switzerland, Spain, Sweden). For its second appearance in Montreal, Sugyp did an
excellent pyromusical show, one of the funniest since a long time. The Swiss team - a crew of seven pyros including three women - powered this edition of the competition up to the world-renowned “Montreal standard”.
I have to say that I have been amazed by the capacity of Sugyp designers to achieve a significant departure from their debut display. The title of their new show,
E-motions, had multiple layers. First, it evoked a range of emotions : happiness and joys, love, sadness, and even dramatic suspense. Second, the emphasized “E-” refered to the digital ways to express emotions through emoticons. Before the show, I also thought about a third potential layer, the world of “motions”. In 2012, their debut display
Aérofolies told the story of aerospace, with a set-up plane moving on the lake, a shuttle launch and an unforgetable remotely-controled “helicopter” flying above the lake, displaying gerbs, stars and even a couple of mines. While it was not awarded by a Jupiter, it is a show that people still talk about (click
here for reviews of
Aérofolies). I hoped for a similar device this year, possibly with drones, which are increasingly used in mass entertainment, including in some fireworks shows. It was not the case. However, as soon as
E-motions began, I forgot about it and I was totally fascinated by this brand new show.
There was a complex setup, with a huge number of shapes made of lances along the third ramp, and flame projectors on the fifth ramp, once again located very close to the audience. In contrast with the Canadian team, Sugyp used another device which allowed for multiple angles of flame shooting. The projectors shot note-synchronized flames during two serene segments,
River Flows in You and
The Tale of Viktor Navorski. The former began with these flames, then flares, fountains, and gerbs appeared on the third ramp as flames continued, thus creating a great depth effect. The latter segment was more enigmatic, and question-mark-shaped and exclamation-shaped lances appeared in background. Flames and lances continued as falls and horsetails burst above. There are different schools of thought regarding the use of flame projectors in this competition. Personally, I thought they were interesting effects and we should emphasize that other pyrotechnic products were added after a short period of time, so these were not “flame only”.
It is not a surprise that many emoticons appeared through shaped lances. The finale began with heart- and rosette-shaped lances (i.e., love Montreal), a veiled reference to their 2012 show (where these shapes were made with the flying helicopter). I was concerned about these devices since I read, in Paul’s interview, how many of these had been crafted for the show, and in Travis’ forecast, the weak speed of wind. These devices often produce a lot of smoke. Fortunately, it was not the case with these ones. That being said, I have been more surprised to see many other emoticons made of sequences of vertically launched stars, the highest points of each emoticon being shooted first. That particular design was similar to the one introduced by Jubilee Fireworks in 2015 (England, Gold Jupiter winner) during their
Love Me Like You Do segment, where a heart then appeared a couple of times. In Sugyp show, we thus saw a giant heart, smiley and sad faces, as well as a smiley heart and something else which seems to be an exclamation mark made of blue stars.
While the colours were not as vivid as in the Chilean display, the Swiss entrant had good quality products and some innovative effects, especially what appeared to me as mouse-shaped shells. I saw countless fireworks shows at WDW and never saw a Mickey Mouse-shaped shell there, but I could see it in Montreal from a Swiss team! (However, the shape of these shells was not crystal clear, other people thought they were cats. I guess that an American psychologist who was sat close to me could conduct a perceptual study on this.
) The arsenal also included cylindrical shells of white comets, studatas, bright electric comets, and a good quantity of large shells (presumably 12 inches). On the music of
Misirlou, I loved some shells of stars which were sequentially ignitated, as well as the sustainable barrage of HUGE nautical shells of comets (maybe some with a go-getter style).
In addition to some complex segments introduced by the flame projectors described above, many other parts of the display made the most of the firing area and featured interesting blend of effects. For instance, the penultimate segment began with cakes horizontally shooting purple and green stars over the lake, then combined to other cakes vertically shooting similar stars. The green and purple pattern continued with meteor-headed comets and shells. Then, we saw a rare shell of very dense gold comets with a bright blue pistil, followed by fast chasing sequences of comets along the firing ramps. That segment was as intense as a finale, but it was only the penultimate part. The actual finale featured a 180-degree cake of stars on the 4th ramp, complemented by two 90-degree cakes on each side of the firing area. Synchronized shells were followed by a long barrage of silver effects (shells of comets, mines, nautical shells, salutes) at all levels.
The synchronization was flawless through the show. The soundtrack was very interesting. While it was a traditional soundtrack with 16 segments without particular mixing, it featured a good balance between powerful and serene parts. The musical line-up was also diverse, including movie soundtracks, songs, classical musics and children-style sounds.
Minor criticisms may include the repetition of smiley faces and some minor technical problems, some of them being so small that I am sure that most people in the audience didn’t see them (e.g., I am not sure that all projectors properly worked during the initial flame segment ; Paul’s interview also announced that some structures with lances were going to move, which was not the case).
That being said, it was a fabulous display. Sugyp’s 2012 performance became famous owing to the plane and the flying helicopter which shot fireworks, but the remaining of the pyromusical performance was not as great as the one we saw tonight. At this stage of the competition, Sugyp is a strong contender for a Jupiter. This is the one to beat.
My ranking so far :
1. Sugyp (Switzerland)
2. Pirotecnia SPA (Chile)
3. Big Bang Fireworks (Canada)
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That was apparently a busy day on Sainte-Hélène island, thanks to a multicultural festival and the fireworks competition. Next to the Jean-Drapeau metro station, the bus driver advised people to walk up to La Ronde instead of using the transportation system, because traffic would cause a delay of almost 30 minutes, whereas La Ronde entrance is a 10- to 15-minute walk from the metro station. Indeed, the Macdonald road was jammed.
Once arrived at La Ronde entrance, it took 25 minutes to go through the check point and the turnstiles. Then, there were long queue lines for most attractions and food services I walked by. It was fortunate that I entered the grandstands early as some ticket holders had issues to reach the entrance as the midway was also crowded. One well-known person in this forum sat at 9:56pm!
We were fortunate to keep a good view on the fireworks display. While the westerlies oriented the smoke toward the audience, the velocity was good enough to clear the view through the show. I also imagine that non-smokey products and serene segments did help.
Fred
