Those of you who watched from Notre-Dame on Saturday night, notice that there were quite bit more spectators viewing the display compared to the previous Wednesday nights, even though there was a risk of rain showers in addition to the cooler weather. I observed in surrounding streets that there also was a great deal of people, too, so the increase in population may be attributed to the Saturday.

However, despite the powerful notion of perception, as a faithful member of viewing the fireworks since 1990 on Notre-Dame, I can safely say that there was an abundance of people attending each show moreso in the 90s, includind the days of adverse weather. Because of the benefits of the park, it is natural that maximum capacity will be nearly reached consistently as opposed to more open areas such as Notre-Dame. I can't really comment on consistency of the bridge's population, but I do know that it can have a population of nearly 100,000 spectators; I know this because it was stated that about 90,000 spectators were reported during the closing show in both 2004 and 2005 respectively on the bridge. However, I do specifically recall that the bridge used to have much more people per display, especially again back in the 90s and perhaps even in the early 2000s (I remember being amazed at the clusters of people up there covering a vast area near the railing alone).

And Fred, I do for a fact feel that there has been a smaller crowd not only this year, but also for the last recent years as well. I cannot say whether this is the cause of the street closures commencing later than usual, but it's certainly a reasonable assumption.

Trav.

I guess I lose this argument. Seeing as I was all of 7 years old in 1990 I don't really have much experience with the large crowds from back then. I was more just basing it off of last year which I thought was a bad year for attendance when compared to the past 5 years or so. I still do believe that this year has been better attended so far then last

Hi canuck,

I must acquiesce and say that last year's general attendance, in terms of Notre-Dame and De Lorimier, was comparably poor to other previous years, including 2005. However, compared to this season, I felt there was slightly less mainly because of perhaps the first 2 Wednesdays and the weather threats, particularly what was witnessed during and prior to the English performance. By contrast, though the weather was a little cool, I noticed that there were quite a bit more people seen in the area for the Mexican display, most likely due to the fact that it was a Saturday night.

With respect to last year, the schedule was also a little bit tricky, but the first 3 displays all fell on either Saturday or Sunday. According to my reports and as I recall, I recorded that Switzerland had a good deal of people for the opening while I reported Italy's performance to have fewer people (possibly because it was a Sunday). However, Argentina's audience had a returning abundance of spectators, even though that too was also indeed a Sunday.

Again, it may be hard to tell, but a good indication of population around these streets, for me at least, is to observe how long it takes for the crowd to clear out, most notably on De Lorimier, after the displays are over.

And yes, in the 1990s, we were clustered by people for nearly every display, almost to the point where you couldn't even move as you pleased. Ah, those were the real years for the fireworks.

Trav.

Well, I don't have much to say about the mexican display, except that I was a bit disappointed by the performance. Not much action during the display and an OK finale. Since I really enjoy watching fireworks, I had fun nonetheless and I don't regret attending this one!

Pierre