Hi Everyone,

Well, this evening, I was really entertained by the Australian team and I found their display to be very original and I never got bored one second. They filled the sky many times with lots of colors, noisy shells and the show was intense. It is the first time that the sky was really filled from top to bottom left to right.....at times, I had to look way up in the sky to see everyting...and I love that! Personally, I thought the soundtrack was a bad choice, so I did not like it at all.....with the exception of the song "Another brick in the wall" by Pink Floyd which I like a lot. The finale started off very nicely and was intense but was WAY TOO SHORT. This was a major disappointment. Oh well....can't win'em all! So the Australian display was my favorite, but since I preferred the Portuguese finale, this is my ranking:

1. Portugal (best finale)
2. Australia (best display)
3. South Korea
4. Italy
5. France

Now, we're waiting for Canada to show its know-how.......

Go Canada Go!

Pierre

First, let me say: What luck with the weather. I was expecting the skies to be really threatening up till almost 9:00 p.m. as a couple of cells were rapidly racing from the NW towards downtown and the East end, particularly the one arriving around 4-5 p.m. And of course, this latest cell arrived just around 8:00 p.m. bringing with it drizzle, then a sudden downpour of rain with one or two lightning flashes off towards the East - all this seemed to have intimidated much of the audience. Thankfully, as I moreso feared than the rain itself, the winds gratefully were ideal to take away the smoke, though it still seemed to be quite dense towards low level at times. Regardless, I knew that we would be alright following that episode of rain, simply based on the wind patterns and clouds following the storm.

Regarding the display, well, my, I thought it was spectacular from beginning to end with the loudest bang after the countdown, even though it had started just before Michel LaCroix could finish. lol I thought it was beautiful overall and easily ranks among one of the most powerful displays I've seen in a long time. There were some effects that were very unusual and seemingly new, particularly that variation of what appeared to be a shell of shell type - the first blast would separate into a first burst, then a second just above, then a third, and then finally one massive shell at the very top, all creating a tower ending with a massive shell overhead. The farfalles were just gorgeous, and of course those crackling pistils really delighted me immensely, especially when they would fill the sky widely.

The low level effects were quite beautiful, particularly the flares at one segment that transitioned from red to yellow and then back to red, all accordingly with the music. Those fountains, or gerbs, that rose elegantly at one point were also something to behold. I noticed some nautical strobes taking place for some time at one point when a segment had started off. Of course, near the climax of the finale, everyone was dazzled by those couple large mine-like fans (looked like ground level shells) of white coming from the bottom. I also was fond of the those red, white and especially green meteor comet strobes that virtually dominated one segment. At a couple of points, people really loved, though some were intimidated as to how close some of the fireworks reached - some of the weeping willows were even reaching about halfway into the St.Lawrence! Finally, there was another type of effect that once exploding at mid level usually, it would give off the same kind of star scattering as a go-getter, except this dispersed a lot quicker! I'm guessing that it was a variation of it.

And my, what a finale that was! Very powerful, colorful and literally deafening, although it could have lasted just a little longer (yes, I can't get enough!) lol

The music choice had some good tracks over other ones that I really didn't care for. However, I liked "Down Under" when it came to representing the thunder part of the song (Can't you hear the thunder...better run, better take cover) - I've always loved that part quite a bit. I also appreciated some other choices, too, but most notably that techno track that was played - the fireworks really did that piece well.

The only thing about the display, though, is that while the connection between the music and theme was there, it was a bit tougher to get that notion through the fireworks themselves at times, I mean compared to Portugal. Synchronization was excellent, but some points were noticeably off, and perhaps some segments started off in sort of a rush. Other than that, this was an extravagant display, and with all honesty, it was the one I enjoyed the most when it comes to vehemence. Nevertheless, it was not only a powerful and energetic performance (almost like Australia 2000), but it also contained sort of an enigmatic touch to it somehow in such a way that it was both designed and fired, perhaps in part because of the captivating unusual effects used. And it was no joke in claiming that this was a large setup!

In essence, all I have to state is that Howard and Sons really did a magnificent and complex job compared to what I recall in their 2005 display. I'm still not too sure where to place this display as of yet, but I'm still holding on to Portugal for first place.

Anyhow, those are my brief thoughts on the show, and I'll certainly have a fully organized report later on today. Hope you guys enjoyed this display as much as I!

Trav.

What a nice display tonight by Australia. By far the most colorful of the event so far. They had so many effects I have never seen before, it was so cool to see. Like Smoke has made reference to the variation on the shell of shells was awesome.

The segment to the song "Nothing else matters" is by far my favorite segment of the whole festival. It was such a powerful piece without being overwhelming. It fit the song so well. There were so many shells blowing up but it never felt over done, and considering the speed of the song it was wonderful.

My only problem with the show would be the finale, I found it to be way to short. But then again, i find all finales these days to be way to short

Rankings so far

1. Portugal
2. Australia
3. South Korea
4. Italy
5. France

WOW!!! i just saw the finale video by smoke (tnx)... Finales like that can't last very long.. It was made of big, high quality and expensive shells by yung feng i'm guessing.. Just those (rising tail shells) the one that has smaller shells before the main burst would cost them more than 250 dollars atleast per shell.... I saw Yung feng's catalog and it says +40% to the real price of the shell for the rising tail ehehehe!

vander

The full video is up now, report to follow later. Everyone loved the Japanese-style rising tail effects on many of the large shells - something I don't recall seeing in Montreal before. Also, this was the only show, so far, this year to use any 12" shells - definitely makes quite a big difference to the "width" of the display.

Paul.

Vander,

Glad you liked my finale video, as well as the pieces leading up to it. Indeed, finales like that tend to be cut somewhat short, but it was still quite powerful, especially taking into account that the rest of the display was like a finale by itself. I pretty much treated this display as an early birthday present.

Paul,

Yeah, that's what I was referring to in my brief comments as being a seemingly new effect - it was those rising tail effects (I described them as a tower of bursts leading up to one massive shell).

And yes, it was quite a wide display from left to right and top to bottom - some points where I just didn't know where to look because of the multitude of things going on at once everywhere in the sky.

A thunderous display, to say the least, and the most enjoyable one for me because of the sheer power involved in it. Thanks for posting the video. I've always loved Australian displays, and I knew this one would come through nicely.

Other than that, I hope no one was too intimidated by that heavy rainfall earlier.

EDIT: Canuck - I understand that you're moving to Vancouver and will not be here to see Canada, and of course, the rest of the displays. However, I'm just very delighted to see that you were able to view the well delivered display put on by Australia in person. Most assuredly, it will be something that would remain in your mind and something to refer to, especially since it was so powerful.

However, don't forget that you at least still have access to the full videos of each performance provided by Paul on this site, so you'll get the opportunity to view them anyway.

Trav.

Thx Trav. It was a wonderful going away show. I haven't missed a show in years, so I'm glad I got to see Howard really redeem themselves after the last times they came. I really do hope that last shows impress the hell out of you guys. I know for sure I will be planning my future vacations around the montreal fireworks competition lol.

At first when i saw the soundtrack, i really didn't like it but while weatching the show i thought that the soundtrack was very enjoyable. This show was amazing.. It was well synchronized, wasn't boring, and it had very high quality shells (most of the time) that you won't see used so plentiful in normal displays.

The beginning was very "explosive" and throughout the show there were lots of intense segments but still didn't lose the synchronization. I love the parts when the shells stop exploding then there would be some one shot sequences below. The fast duration gerb that formed circles had a pretty neat effect. The patterns used for the comets where quite original and the comets went up pretty high. I loved the green and red strobing comets. At 22:30 of the timeline the fountains were really great... They unexpectedly went lower after reaching a certain height. One of the segment that was well done was the one right after the sparkling diamonds. The synchronization of the flames and the gerbs was perfectly done. It looked like there was a pyro instrument on the lake. Another original aspect of the show was how they accentuated using pyrotechnic effects (is there such a word???) some of the effects in the songs such as voice echoes etc…

The Japanese style rising tails were very nice and what a debut to montreal! They were used abundantly and in many different variations. The way they angled the tails of the shells made the display even more unusual or original. Another shell that i really liked was the willow kaleidoscope shells that had a peony surrounding the clusters (11:54 of the timeline).I also liked the one that exploded on 24:54 of the timeline. The arrangement of the stars was more random than usual shells making it look very unique. They used many different variations of horsetails/waterfalls too. The far falles were just fine but not the best that you could find. The go-getter mines were used very well, it appeared that the stars were dancing to the music. Maybe a few large nautical shells would have made the display even more spectacular. Bravo to Howards and Sons for picking (if not the best) one of the best manufacturer in China when it comes to aerial shells. The price they paid for the shells were very well worth it.

The finale was just fine. I thought that it was well done despite the issue about the length. Important part is..... it made you deaf, there was salutes, and it wasn't all gold ahahahahaha.... It would be quite a hard task to top this show but the next participants are also preparing big shows.

The displays are really getting better week by week. So far we’ve got some information about each of the next participants except for Pyrovision, Austria. Could they be the sleeping giants?? Hehehe… I really don’t like typing too much but for shows like this… I would have to ehehehe..

I grade this show just slightly higher portugal's display (something I never thought will happen earlier)…. This is because of the originality of the songs they picked and because of the quality of the shells they used.
My Ranking so far:
1. Australia
2. Portugal (i hate to see them in the second place in my rankings)
3. South Korea
4. France
5. Italy

vander

That was a breath taking display. Not only for me but for my girlfriend. Her 2nd time watching fireworks [u][/u]ever![b][/b] The first she saw was Portugal. It was her favorite. In Australias display, the hearts were well organized. The finale was quite something else too. It was quite powerful with large chest thumping shells. I could have sworn, throughtout the entire display, I saw at least 4 12" shells. One brought the glitter al the way to the river. "They really want to win" My girlfriend said, as the finale started. I replied "I said the same thing to my dad for Germany's display last year" . My dad had sort of trouble hearing me during Germany's poweful finale.

My rankings so far:

1.Portugal
2.Australia
3.South Korea
4.France
5.Italy

Speaking of which, I know one of the judges. Peter Tsatoumas, he was my grade 5 substitute.He explained everything that he was going to be a judge. I spoke to him this morning. He told me, so far in his rankings he put :Portugal 1st, Australia 2nd and South Korea 3rd.

I hope Portugal wins for the outstanding effort. But let's not forget about our home and native land! Let's see what us Canadians have to beat the Portugese!

Pat

Howard & Sons a clairement produit un meilleur spectacle qu'en 2005. Il n'y avait aucune narration pour perturber le déroulement du spectacle et, cette fois-ci, les feux ne se sont pas faits attendre au terme du décompte officiel. Au contraire, ce fut l'un des départs les plus puissants que j'ai vu depuis longtemps!

La mise en scène de ce spectacle était assez complexe avec 26 plate-formes flottantes (si j'ai bien compté, un record) sur lesquels différents produits ont été allumés tout au long du spectacle, notamment des flammes, des gerbes et des comètes. Les pièces pyrotechniques déployées étaient assez diversifiées et de grande qualité (des pièces multibris, plusieurs bombes avec des pistils ou autres éléments internes, des bombes de craquelins blancs, plusieurs autres avec des changements de couleurs). Les bombes d'étoiles produisant une succession d'éclosions de gerbes colorées au cours de leur ascension (un concept japonais, comme ce fut discuté précédemment, mais ces pièces venaient en fait de Chine) constituaient de plus un élément original à Montréal.

Ces qualités étant soulignées, je dirais que la conception artistique présentait quelques lacunes significatives. D'abord, le thème était un peu "flou" et la décision de choisir uniquement des pièces musicales réarrangées a probablement eu pour effet de dépayser considérablement les spectateurs.

Mais, plus important, il me semble que la performance pyrotechnique n'était pas toujours bien harmonisée à la bande sonore et que le tout manquait un peu de raffinement. Si la synchronisation elle-même était généralement bonne, la sélection des pièces pyrotechniques ne semblait pas s'accorder aussi bien aux effets sonores que ce que nous devrions attendre d'un spectacle pyromusical. Aussi, le raffinement servi par les Portuguais, les Sud-Coréens et même les Italiens, manquait à ce spectacle.

En bout de piste, Howard & Sons a livré une bonne performance et il faut noter l'"évolution" depuis 2005 (n'était-ce pas le titre du spectacle?) Cependant, Luso Pirotecnia et Hanwha occupent toujours les deux premières positions de mon palmarès personnel.

Enfin, notons que le nombre record de plate-formes flottantes sur le lac témoigne de la latitude dont jouissent les artificiers qui compétitionnent à Montréal pour donner libre cours à leur imagination et de la souplesse dont les organisateurs font preuve à cet égard. Le montage de toutes ces plates-formes a dû représenter un travail colossal. D'ailleurs, les préparations pour le feu d'hier soir n'ont été terminées que vers 21h30. Chapeau à l'équipe des artificiers.

Fred

The attendance yesterday seemed slightly lower than last Saturday. We still were able to do a few rides (always the same ones with the shortest lineups lol). I think so far, the fireworks days have been good for the attendance this year! Also, it started to rain really hard, but after a few minutes, it stopped. It's funny how everyone starts running around when it suddenly starts to rain heavy!

I personally would rate this show as equally good as Portugal's. I have no doubt that so far, the judges are leaning towards either Portugal or Australia.

I was very tired last night, probably due to lack of sleep, even though I know it didn't look like it, hehe. What can say! La Ronde always makes me happy and active!

Also, it bothers me (and sometimes, changes my mood) when the smoke blows in my direction, not only because a lot of ashes fall in my eyes, but also because it kinda makes the background of the show too white, and thus, it's less enjoyable to watch the show.

It was still a very fun display to watch. The Australian team made a good use of the lake and the whole area. Their special "lake feature" wasn't too impressive to me, if you compared to Portugal's semicircular structures.

I liked the beginning, and especially the first half of the show. Overall, I'd say that the display, itself, was very well balanced and for some parts, it was well organized. I rate this show high, because I really enjoyed mainly the fireworks display. The "Japanese-style rising tail effects" were very kewl, but at some point, I felt that they overusing them. Yet, it was fun to watch them do those effects before exploding in the sky.

For the most part, syncronization was very good. However, I perhaps enjoyed less the soundtrack. Maybe, half of the songs didn't appeal to me, but some of them were enjoyable. The biggest weakness was the theme. I'm not sure if I really get it. I know it has to do with the evolution of certain songs/music, but then again, I don't know if this is a good idea for a theme. I couldn't really relate the display to the theme, somewhat similar to Portugal's display, except I prefer Portugal's theme.

I have a feeling that the Australian team wanted to focus more on the fireworks display, which was as I said, very good!

The finale was rather disappointing in that it ended way too fast, but it was a very intense finale. I was very happy to see the salutes, too. I also want to add that I noticed the quality of the pieces were good in general, but the colors were not as vivid as last week's show.

I really thought a lot about Australia and Portugal, after the show, and even though I've put Australia second place, I would still rate them both equally good. Most of my criticisms are minor, except for the theme.

It was another fun night at the park. It was also kewl "hanging out" with Tyler and a friend after the show lol!
La Ronde is not always open in the late evening hours nowadays!

My rankings so far - rated from La Ronde:

1. Portugal
2. Autralia
2. South Korea
3. Italy
4. France

Also, it bothers me (and sometimes, changes my mood) when the smoke blows in my direction.

I had covered this in my weather report(s) that the winds may occasionally blow the smoke towards the audience at La Ronde due to their variability between the West and the North, so I'm not really too surprised about this fact. According to Paul, though, it seemed to have been more persistent than I thought. I know that feeling of constantly having to smell that odour from the smoke as well as having fine matter flying into your eyes - I'm sorry to hear that.

However, not only this, but though we could see much of the low level effects clearly from Notre-Dame and elsewhere, I noticed that, when watching the video, some of these effects were sort of drowned by the dense smoke present at times. The winds, in general, were fairly light in nature following that earlier rainstorm.

Nevertheless, despite the fact, it seems that we all enjoyed this display immensely.

Trav.

Hi guys, I'm glad you all enjoyed our display last saturday night. We were certainly very happy with our efforts and watching your video sure makes up for the lack of sleep we are all suffering after a long packup and early morning flights today.....I am currently stuck here in NYC with delayed flights and still a long way from home. It's pleasing to here such positive comments about the quality of product, we spend alot of time and effort selecting and manufacturing the best products available.....Vander, your observations regarding our intent with choreography and design are quite accurate....... and yes we made a deliberate decision not to run a traditional theme, our concept was to to create a pyrotechnic mix of music that covered all genres and our 'theme' of evolved songs, was merely a tool we used to thread them all together.......Fred, Paul it was nice to catch up with you at the Saloon saturday night......Enjoy the rest of the competition!

Here's to Travis!

Just want to wish you all the best for your Birthday my friend, on Monday July 21st.........and yes, Australia put on quite a show in advance for your Birthday and Canada will close the celebration a little after your Birthday....I am quite sure they will make you proud!

So, enjoy your day (and the fireworks that go along), Travis!

Pierre

Looks like I'm late to the party this week - had a late night post-display and have been out all of Sunday... with Howard & Sons delightful display still in mind.

My first thoughts after the display (which I share with Enkil), are that it is difficult to judge Australia's display against Portugal's display as they were both very good and, I found, very similar in general ways. The biggest similarity between them is that the themes of both were "easy themes" whereby it was really pyrotechnics set to musical pieces that have some correlation to one another - no serious attempt at using the music in new ways or making new meaning of the songs. To be fair, neither Luso nor Howard & Sons sought to accomplish the latter (which is fine, but I believe leave the door open for, notably, the Canadian and/or Austrian teams who, based on preliminary information, appear to have displays that explore "difficult themes" lined up).

Having said that, I will not go to great lengths at this point to compare or judge Australia's performance against any other at this early stage of the competition - I am saving the painstaking in-depth analysis for post-competition!

I have to say that I greatly enjoyed the Australian display. The show commenced with such an energetic sequence (much better than Portugal's highly touted kick-off to their display) and set a feverish pace that was maintained very effectively for about 18 minutes until the "Proper Education" segment, during which I felt as though something was 'off.' Reflecting back, I think that many of the sequences were too similar with the main difference being the musical accompaniment. While I appreciated the incredible quality of the product used - I would say easily the best we've seen this year - I felt that to many sequences were beautiful barrages of colour, light and noise (the big explosions) which helped to highlight segments such as "Down Under Unplugged" and "Peter Allen Medley feat 'I Still Call Australia Home’ & 'Tenterfield Saddler." "Nothing Else Matters" - I agree Canuck, probably the best sequence so far this year - was a wonderful blend of subtlety and euphoria... a brilliant segment. It was around this point that the display began to lose me a little bit. "Adagio For Strings" was perhaps too brief to effectively change the pace between Metallica and Pink Floyd and came across as uninspired. The techno-infused "Proper Education," was where I began to feel that Howard & Sons were either running out of ideas or were too intent on amazing and overwhelming the crowd because, to me, it was just 'more of the same.' The Peter Allen Medley nicely continued the display while offering a change of pace. However, the following sequence with "Whole Lotta Love" felt utterly uninspired and almost an excuse to use the heart-shaped fireworks which I thought had become a novelty in the pyrotechnic industry... the crowd around me seemed to really like them though... I was thinking, 'seriously?' Anyway, the next sequence "Under The Milky Way" just might rival the "Nothing Else Matters" segment as the best of 2008. It had great pacing and was just so fulfilling. Also, the already oft-mentioned Japanese-style rising tail shell was used for the first time here and was the absolute perfect piece to build anticipation with climaxing music and then the sky was set ablaze with colour - on second thought, this was my favourite sequence!!! The rest of the display was alright, but nothing outstanding. I think Australia may have better served their interests if they saved shells (over-)used earlier in the display to increase the significance of their finale, but the finale was very good none the less.

Oh, and the smoke and debris directed by the wind towards the audience inside La Ronde did not bother me very much and in no way detracted from my enjoyment.

Thank you Stuart Bensley and the Howard & Sons team for a very memorable display (and for sharing your thoughts and information here on the forum) - I would be happy to see you win a Jupiter this August. Best of luck and safe travels!

Tyler

EDIT: A very happy Birthday to you Trav! Coincidentally, your birthday falls right around my favourite time of the year