One of the distinguishing features of the Montreal International Fireworks Competition is the ceremony which precedes the display itself. For people in the grandstands at La Ronde, this is a very important part of the overall spectacle.

The evening proceeds something like this:

9:25 Chariots of Fire played
9:27 Introduction by the esteemed Michel Lacroix
9:30 Team does a lap of honour around the lake in a boat

After the lap of honour, the local consul for the country participating gives a speech and then greats the team. The team's national anthem is then played before they leave to go to the firing booth to start the display at 10.

I filmed the proceedings last night - it runs about 15 minutes and is up on the Member Only Videos page. Enjoy

Paul.

Paul,

Thanks for this little extra bonus, its nice to see some "behind the scenes" footage.

Do you have any other of these opening ceremonies on file?

Sean

Sean,

no, this is the first time I've filmed the ceremonial aspect of the competition. I thought there was a fair chance the US Consul would give his speech in English and therefore be of interest to a wider audience.

I will film the awards ceremonies this year as I believe there are going to be special extras this year. More details when I have them.

Paul.

Hi Paul,

Thank you very much for this interesting, and "epic" video footage of the US ceremony before the actual show. It's always great to see what's going on during this time while we wait patiently for the displays to start off - it must make the anticipation so powerful during the last 35 mins of waiting!

Thanks again, and I look forward to that of the closing ceremony.

Trav.

Last year's closing display featured a "Mini-fireworks to mark Longueuil's 350th anniversary" which, as I remember, was basic, but rather enjoyable.

Maybe there is a 400th birthday present to Quebec City in the works this year?

I feel bad for saying this, but I'm starting to find the ceremony before the displays a bit boring, except for the music! These ceremonies seem to be more for the average non-pyromaniac audience.

Honestly, the comments I read on this forum are a lot more exciting and interesting than what I read in press releases or hear at the ceremonies lol.

The final ceremony is always fun, though!

I feel bad for saying this, but I'm starting to find the ceremony before the displays a bit boring, except for the music! These ceremonies seem to be more for the average non-pyromaniac audience.

Tsk tsk tsk! Pyros are usually the unsung heroes that entertain thousands of people at once, yet no-one gets to see them or hear their names. The ceremonies before the displays in Montreal are way to redress the balance and show them the respect and admiration they deserve. The competition would be unimaginable without the ceremony! Remember the outrage when the format was changed in 2002? See here for a reminder of how bad it was without Michel Lacroix!

Speaking to the pyros in the Salon des Artificiers afterwards the one comment one hears most is how important this aspect is and how they love it! The only thing I don't like this year is having the banter between Michel Lacroix and whoever the host-for-the-night is from Rhythme FM. This really adds nothing and, in my humble opinion, detracts from the prestige of the ceremony. One very positive addition has been inviting the Consul General from each participating country to make a speech. One wonders aloud if Mayor Gerald Tremblay will break his boycott of the closing ceremony and grace us with his presence next Wednesday 6th?

Another nice feature of the ceremony is that it builds the anticipation for the display. I find the atmospheric music between 9:50 and 10:00 to be perfect in building this feeling - and it's the slowest 10 minutes one can imagine!

Honestly, the comments I read on this forum are a lot more exciting and interesting than what I read in press releases or hear at the ceremonies lol.

I tend to agree with you here - the information in the press releases is not great - though the video interviews do supplement these. The best press releases were back in the days of Marie Bouchard and Claire Feland in the late 1990s - Claire especially took great care in researching and writing an interesting press release.

Paul.

That's true. The ceremony is probably less enjoyable for us to watch when we can barely see Michel Lacroix on the little stage, not to mention all the pyros and guests. Even when you're in front of the stage, in the back of the Silver section, it's still not clear. It's always a pleasure to hear Michel Lacroix's voice, but the information we get from him is rather redundant and unimpressive, compared to the forum. I understand, though, it's part of the ceremony!

The songs never seem to get old, and I always enjoy listening to them before the display, especially the music between 9:50pm and 10pm, with the illuminated Ferris Wheel in the background! The part where Michel Lacroix talks with a special guest from Rhythme FM is indeed weird, lol. I just think Rhythme FM and the ceremony at La Ronde should be seperate from each other. I always thought the ceremony was a lot more interesting to listen to when I used to tune in to Rhythme FM.

Let's just say when I think about it, I guess I prefer going on rides in the dark rather than watching a ceremony, unfortunately...

Paul, I can't be more agree with you. Of course, Michel Lacroix's speech includes some corporate parts which become boring since they are always the same. But the official ceremony really contributes to add prestige to the competition and it is always great to applause the pyrotechnicians as they are introduced to the audience. I also share the same opinion than yours about the Rythme FM host-for-the-night.

An official told me that it is much more easier to secure the presence of representatives from foreign governments than local ones. At least, there was a federal MP to welcome the Canadian team this year. About Mayor Tremblay, I suppose that there's a plot between him and La Presse to boycott the fireworks competition!

Regarding the content of press releases, I believe that La Ronde should reach an agreement with you to write them, since you are often more effective to bring here interesting cues about the content of each show!

A final comment about Michel Lacroix. He is really the official voice of fireworks. Unfortunately for us, many other events covet his voice. Thus, Michel Lacroix will work to the Olympic Games in Beijing and will not be with us for the closing night. We have to enjoy him next Saturday!

Fred

Being now seated in the VIP section (eurk), ppl so don't care !!! They don't even applause when the boat pass in front of them.  It is indeed very sad... Even tho, we don't see really see what's going on on the stage, we can still hear a bit of what Michel Lacroix says. But they are all there for the free boos, not the ceremony

As for the special-guest from Rythme FM I also agree. Bo-ring. Bring the girl on CKOI, lol !!!

As for the comments after the show on the station, it is quite boring as well... They all say it was wonderful. Mario Pelchat said he saw some king of weeping willows during the Italy fireworks ! DUH !!! Put someone that can pinpoint the good and the bad... just like that girl on ... ok ok... i stop

I just recently registered onto this webiste and I am unable to view any of the videos. When I click on them the page looks like it's trying to load but nothing ever comes up. Is the server down?

The videos are quite large - some around 250Mbytes. You can try right clicking on the links and doing a save-link-as to save the file to your computer. Then you can re-watch at your leisure. The server definitely isn't down - in fact, it served over 116Gbytes of video traffic last month alone!

Paul.

The server definitely isn't down - in fact, it served over 116Gbytes of video traffic last month alone!

Nice! Sounds like business is picking up around here! Paul, has a lot changed since that "Sad decline of..." topic you started a number of months ago?

As for the pre-display ceremonies, I personally find them to be rather enjoyable.

As many have mentioned, the banter between the Rythme FM guest star and Michel Lacroix is pointless. I think it is just a weak attempt to get spectators to arrive at their seats early. A good portion of the crowd tends to show up just minutes (sometimes seconds) before the display begins - it would be nice if there were a way to deter this tendency.

As Paul mentioned, the speech by the Consul General from each participating country is a great feature. Huang Huikang, Minister Counsellor and Deputy Chief of Mission at the embassy of China in Canada, who spoke this past Saturday was probably my favourite of the competition - his giving away secrets about the Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies were much appreciated!

And Mylene, I sat in the Gold section last year for the award ceremony and closing display and noticed the complete lack of respect from that portion of the crowd. I could not believe that my friend and I were the only ones in the section to give a standing ovation to Pains Fireworks on their Gold Jupiter win.

Also, about the post-show comments on Rythme FM, Sébastien Benoît, who was the guest star for the French display this season, should be commended for his analysis - I was very impressed with his attention to detail and impressions on Prestatech Artifices' storytelling.

Tyler

My comment may be unfair, but I suspect that most people in the VIP section are there more to socialize and to enjoy a drink than to watch the fireworks. It is also one of the less interesting viewpoint at La Ronde to watch the display since people are located on the left side of the firing ramps.

Fred

Paul, has a lot changed since that "Sad decline of..." topic you started a number of months ago?

That thread was brought up just over a year ago (July 30th, as I recall) and indeed, this has certainly been an active year - almost record breaking in the number of posts - so far, we have the most posts next to that of 2005, and it's certainly possible to break the record of 383 posts. The topics are slightly lower by comparison, but it's still above 30, and may continue to rise slowly, so it should be comparable - then again it already is since we surpassed previous years in that regard.

Funny enough, I was monitoring the trend and activity since the beginning of July, and I slowly saw that we were going to surpass the previous years in terms of posts as the month progressed, and that has been accomplished so far, with the exception of 2005's record. I didn't really say anything until I knew for sure the post count would be high enough - I was actually going to reveal it (in case anyone wasn't aware) just after Panzera.

Thanks for bringing this up, TRae. It was a really successful year.

Trav.