Greetings,

Please post your reviews of the South Korean display here. Unfortunately, I was not able to make it as I just arrived back in the West Island from Ontario too late. However, once we crossed the border, I quickly tuned in on 105.7 FM, and based on the music employed, I felt like this was more of an artistic display compared to both France and Italy. I really liked some of the soundtrack used, as some among them are rather familiar, particularly the one used for the finale.

In any case, I'm really eager to read your responses, as well as seeing some video footage of the display later on, so that I may get some better idea of what the display really had to offer along side of the music.

Trav.

This was one hell of a good show put on by South Korea. By far the most entertaining show this year. The segment to dancing queen I found to be very cool, with the use of 3 different colors in 3 different parts of the sky. To bad they had so many obvious errors during the show as I think that will keep them from winning anything. It also doesn't help that they did they ever cliche all gold finale which is always a -1 in my books.

I agree canuck, compared to France and Italy's display, it was the most entertaining and enjoyable show of this year, so far. No doubt the public highly enjoyed it, too.

There were a fair amount of people at La Ronde. I'm not sure if they reached full capacity on this beautiful day, but based on what I saw at Fort Edmonton, I don't think they did. It's clear that attendance at La Ronde on fireworks days, has been declining since Six Flags took over the park. At 9pm, there were still many good spots available and plenty of space to move around. It's quite a difference compared to the 90s. Or maybe, it's just the way they've change the area. I'm not sure. I don't know how long the lineups were, since I didn't go on rides. If attentance has been declining considerably, then, I would mostly blame it on the expensive admission tickets.

I thought South Korea's show was very well organzied. You could relate it to the theme. It was a smart and enjoyable show with a fun and kewl soundtrack. I really liked the first 15 minutes of it, but then, it seemed that it took a different direction. I liked it how they made good use of the whole area and lake with those bright and large candles. They looked really awesome.

Some may think that it was a bit repetitious or simple at times, but honestly, I don't think it really matters because the way they designed the show, it was smart and entertaining. There was a lot more of creativity in this display, compared to the previous ones. However, it wasn't a "perfect" show because sometimes, I felt that they could've done better in some segments, but I also wouldn't penalize them too harshly for some of the mistakes. I just really think they put a lot of effort in making this show.

For the most part, synchronization was good, and as I said, I found the music way better. At some point, the audience started clapping their hands along with the music! I thought that was interesting. The little Niagara Falls is something that has been overdone in this competition, but it looks like people really liked it!

The quality of the pieces were pretty good. They had interesting and special effects in the beginning of the show, which made the show a bit more original and unique. Again, the first half of the show was very interesting and enjoyable!

The finale was somewhat disappointing, but not so bad. I think the colorful feux finale was well done. They also selected a very good song for the finale. Hrm, I really get angry when they end a display with kamuros. I know they're supposed to make you feel emotional, but for me, it never works, not during a finale. However, I'm not going to complain too much, because I still say the show was pretty good, in my opinion.

I'm not sure how the judges will rate one. I say it's the best one so far:

My rankings - rated from La Ronde:

1. South Korea
2. Italy
3. France

It is nice to come home at 2:30 am and be able to get some insight into how the display was last night - thanks Canuck and Enkil.

All I can say is that I'm sad to have missed it and cannot wait to see a video of the display (especially the first 15 minutes!)

What an excellent show - especially given the unfortunate circumstances that Hanwha faced. Many people might not realize, but the shipping of fireworks by boat is becoming increasingly difficult. Hanwha faced the situation that none of their shells arrived for the display. They tried to buy from an alternative supplier (and redesigned their show for this) but those shells couldn't come in time either. Finally, they bought all their shells locally from Ampleman in Montreal and had to redesign their show a third time at very short notice. This is quite a difficult task since the name/description of shells can be misleading if one hasn't witnessed what their actual effect is. So kudos to the Hanwha team for putting on an excellent display despite all the tribulations they faced. It must be noted that all the low level effects did arrive in Montreal OK - and their over 400 display cakes were truly excellent. Full report to follow shortly.

Paul.

I'm sad, too, to have missed such an excellent display. As TRae mentioned, thank you, canuck, Enkil and Paul for putting in your insights to the display.

And Paul, that's really quite a predicament for the team in having so much difficulty in receiving the shells, especially seeing that they had to redesign their display a third time because of them.

I look forward to the video.

Trav.

The video is up now - report to follow this evening - the weather's too nice to be stuck inside writing reports!

Paul

What an excellent show - especially given the unfortunate circumstances that Hanwha faced. Many people might not realize, but the shipping of fireworks by boat is becoming increasingly difficult. Hanwha faced the situation that none of their shells arrived for the display. They tried to buy from an alternative supplier (and redesigned their show for this) but those shells couldn't come in time either. Finally, they bought all their shells locally from Ampleman in Montreal and had to redesign their show a third time at very short notice. This is quite a difficult task since the name/description of shells can be misleading if one hasn't witnessed what their actual effect is. So kudos to the Hanwha team for putting on an excellent display despite all the tribulations they faced. It must be noted that all the low level effects did arrive in Montreal OK - and their over 400 display cakes were truly excellent. Full report to follow shortly.

Paul.
I don't know whats more sad about this story, the fact that the team from Korea had such a bad time trying to get this show off, or the fact that Ampleman has such beautiful shells and could never hope to put on a show as good as last night.

Canuck said:

Ampleman has such beautiful shells and could never hope to put on a show as good as last night.

What?!?!? Canuck doesn't like Ampleman? This is news to me

Paul, I remember this shipping of fireworks by boat being a problem during the Symposium as well. What specifically is the issue these days? Is there some kind of especially long delay due to increased security at ports? It is a real shame to hear that a competition as prestigious as Montreal's would have their firms fall subject to such an unfortunate development. I hope the issue is being looked into by event organizers and that every precaution necessary is taken to ensure that the material arrives on time to put on the displays as originally conceived.

Hope everyone in town is enjoying this beautiful day,
Tyler

Tnx for the video again , Oh.... What a bad luck they had with the shells It's really tough because of the (olympics) fireworks banned etc. You can clearly see the difference between their shells and their lower fireworks but they were able to "PERFORM" even with that problem. (no offense) I thought that if they were able to use their shells the show would have been much better.

I thought that the show was great with unusual firing patterns such as the one in dancing queen, very well done . The fast burning gerbs part were also cool! It really showed the theme well. The only problems i could see was the part during the can can and the stop in the third to the final song maybe this would lose some points cause of this. There were no water shells used also (maybe cause of the shipping problems). The synchronization was well done without too much repetition. I specially liked the dancing queen part heheh. It realized the theme very well. The effects used really matched the music well, one effect that i thought was something i've never seen was the quiet charcoal serpents (no whistles). They combined quieter segments with more lively segments nicely which made the show more enjoyable. Maybe newer songs should have been incorporated in the show too. Even with the problems i thought that this show was the best so far out of the three.

I rate this show 9/10
My rankings:
1. Korea
2. France
3. Italy

And next week will be my most awaited show! I'm really looking forward to the video of Portugal's latest display in montreal. I wonder what surprise they'll have this year!! 4d ring???.......

Edit: I think that some of the reasons why it's getting harder and harder to ship fireworks by sea is because of the ban on shipping fireworks in china from july 1 - august 30 due to the olympics. Also because of the recent accidents in main shipping ports in china which made shipping companies scared of shipping fireworks and some changes in fireworks rules. This is all because some chinese companies are mass producing fireworks so that they could already ship as much fireworks as they can before the banning period starts which also made their qualities worse. Another thing is that some fireworks are becoming a bit "illegal" to ship such as red and green strobes which i'm sure makes the shipping lines even more scared. Last thing is that because only a few ports allow 1.1g fireworks, this is because special shells are already considered 1.1g from 1.3g such as everyone's favorite salutes, bigger cylindrical shells, and i think spherical shells bigger than 6 or 7 inch!!!!

Vander

Thanks for posting the video, Paul. I'll look at it near the end of the day after I've enjoyed this expected beautiful weather. If you like it humid as well, then wait for later tomorrow into Tuesday.

Speaking of the weather, given the circumstances Hanwha faced with the shipment of shells, as well as having to redesign the show multiple times because of the delay, it's a real darn good thing that the weather conditions were just perfect after all their troubles. If not, I can only imagine how frustrated they'd be, or scared if the the risk was there of any form of rain. I'm just really happy to hear that the show was successful.

the weather's too nice to be stuck inside writing reports!

Heh...well said.

Again, thank you all for posting your reviews. Let's see what Portugal has to offer.

Trav.

What?!?!? Canuck doesn't like Ampleman? This is news to me

Yah, Yah. You got to hear my rant on them last year
I'm just worried that when I move to Vancouver that Ampleman will be the Canadian Entry in the competition over there each year.

Hey,

Well, my parents took my computer away the whole week. but i did luckly see the display last night. My dad said it was the best this year so far. Last year he had never seen a display like Canada! And I quote from Vander "I guess you better get ready for one hell of a finale this coming Saturday!". Im gonna film it on the bridge. Smoke. Try to meet me in the middle of the bridge, cause I know the best places on the bridge that no one has heard of Stunning display from South Korea. Ampleman have the gravest hearts to give the firm the nicest shells for the finale!

The entire show was good. They did one titanium salute for a test for wind. And then 15 mins later, they fired a barrage of nice peonies and small 1 inch salutes. I didn't expect that before the display even started The display was good. One part felt like the finale was early with the largest shells i've seen in a while. The finale. Poor. I just didn't count it for my amusment of the display. It was nice color. But not intense. But yet, no display should be always intense for a good show! One of the judges i know, Peter Tsatoumas. He was my substitute teacher in grade 5. No more than 10 titanium salutes were fired. But in all said, nice display Hanwah!

Pat

I honestly couldn't wait to watch the video, so I just went ahead and did so without hesitation.

This was a fantastic display, and I can understand why many of you found it so entertaining. To be perfectly honest, Hanwha did some of the most fascinating low level sequencing that I have ever seen in recent years, and as Enkil said before, the show had the notion of being strongly connected to the theme, compared to the last two displays. Synchronization was sweet, though at times, I noticed shells being fired off time once a couple of segments came to a close.

The low level effects, such as the fountains, mines, nautical flares of red and bright green, and particularly the meteor comet candles were extraordinary, and the candles were highly sequenced at times with the music, especially from left to right and vice versa towards the center. More importantly, I thought the music choice was carefully considered and in good variety to again represent the theme altogether - there was even some selection of more cultural music to add to the mix, which was rather appropriate. Also, seeing that I am an ABBA fan, as is Pierre, I was mostly overjoyed by the Dancing Queen segment, as were many of you, it would seem. More importantly, because of the music choice employed, the effects, in general, stood out to an even greater extent given the distinctive notes heard in many of the soundtracks, thus permitting the low level effects to be as exquisite as they were when fired accordingly.

Regarding the effects, I thought they were in good variety, particularly the mines and candles. Assisting the low level pieces were often delicate flamboyant colors, which I thought really thought did it justice in making the display as artisitc as it was, namely represented during the "Dancing Queen" segment with those gorgeous meteor comet candles creating a nice curtain, if you will, of colors, while being assisted by barrages of shells of multi-colored stars. Another example were the small rainbow colored star fans bursting from the unique rapid firing pattern of Z cakes (around 1:30 in the video), quickly creating a beautiful slightly curved line of colors. I also loved the left and right waterfall simulation used in the display, as well as those mines of serpents that swirled out in wide fans. The soundtrack itself was probably the best selection of tracks that I've heard so far this season. Synchronization again was superbe, especially with the fans of candles and meteor comets following each distinctive change in both rhythm and pace.

In all, this was a great display, but I personally thought the strongest points of the performance were dedicated to both the design and the choice of music in support of that. I noticed, however, that there were at times a loss of symmetry during some points of the display at low level. One particular point were the mines that produced small fans of gold toward the left and right, but then the left firing looked to be stopping altogether while that of the central and right kept with the flow, compared to a similar pattern seen during the finale at low level (this happened about 19:40+ in the video). Also, I noticed some errors in the display - one being a small single go-getter being fired at random near mid level to the right - this was in error, I believe. Synchronization was well done, but again some shells were fired after the music had concluded during a couple segments. Finally, I also noticed that around 18:45, that particular segment started off rather abruptly following the closing of the previous soundtrack concluded, leaving virtually no pausing in between.

The finale was disappointing because of the lack of color, though it had alright longevity. I found the conclusion of the penultimate piece much more vehement with its firing pattern than the finale itself. The music choice was appropriate for it, though - I mean, just listen to that beat.

That said, a truly successful display, and I must say that it took a completely different approach compared to our last two participants. The display left a strong feeling of showers of emotion, while being probably the tightest with their respective thematic approach and keeping redundancy at a minimum, even though there were some examples of it here and there.

It's interesting to see what our next 6 entrants will attempt to do.

Trav.

One thing I forgot to mention in my previous post, but I noticed that many of the stars from numerous shells had quickly vanished or dissipated not long after the explosion, thus losing their colors rapidly. I don't know if this had anything to do with the weather, or if it was just the shells themselves.

Trav.