Very nice pictures Chris - the one with the 1st one is very much like this one that Mylene took: http://picasaweb.google.ca/mylene.salvas/2010PortugalMacedoSPirotecnia ?feat=flashalbum&fgl=true&pli=1#5490252272018116770

Paul.

Thank you for sharing those excellent photographs, Chris, as well as providing your comments on the displays. I hope to see more of your pictures for the upcoming displays if you plan on attending any of them.

Trav.

Hey Trav,

Ask and thou shalt receive! Here are the rest of the Portugal shots that I liked enough to post online:

















Those pics, and ones from the Italian and Polish show are in this facebook album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2385178&id=13603598&l=d542d6b030

The only alterations I've done on any of these are cropping (all shots are taken landscape, for example, but there is a wide-enough view to get the multi-layered firework effects in a portrait crop), and very minor levels adjustment (because even with a ND2 filter, things get too bright on long exposures...and there's very little I can do about that in PhotoShop, hence the very minor alterations - washed out photos are still mostly washed out after I adjust the levels ). It's actually really hard to improve firework photos after they're taken, so I attack the problem in the taking part with the neutral density filter. It's solved half of my bad photo problems, giving me about a 10% photo success rate (25% if you include the ones that look almost identical to, or slightly worse than the best ones because the team was kind enough to repeat a sequence enough times for me to perfect my technique for that particular situation). Timing and luck!

And I will attend more shows this year certainly, and will try to remember to post the resulting photos in their respective review threads; I am unfortunately moving away from Montreal at the end of the month, so my photographic contribution will end after the show on the 24th. I'm really pissed off at this Celine Dion crap...who's dumbass idea was it to do a tribute to a singer everyone hates with a profound and burning intensity!? I mean, I'll still watch it because explosions are explosions, but I really wish a competing show was in its place.

I'm really pissed off at this Celine Dion crap...who's dumbass idea was it to do a tribute to a singer everyone hates with a profound and burning intensity!? I mean, I'll still watch it because explosions are explosions, but I really wish a competing show was in its place.

Chris, I think your comment is a bit unfair regarding Céline Dion and La Ronde's decision to present this off-competition display. We are entirely free to not like Céline Dion, her person or her songs. While she is very popular, it is true that many people, for instance among the intellectual milieu, have a love-hate relationship with Céline Dion, as well as with popular culture generally speaking. I'm a faculty in a university which rewarded her with a doctorat honoris causa two years ago and I can attest of this love-hate attitude. However, we have to recognize that the fireworks competition is a popular kind of event and this singer is much more popular than classic and opera music other people prefer to hear during a fireworks display.

Moreover, this off-competition display doesn't cause a decline of the number of contestants. There are eight contestants this year and since a long time, each line-up includes 8 or 9 contestants. There's always at least one 30-minute off-competition display. (I think one edition has featured a line-up of 7 contestants with two off-competition shows.) The off-competition one was usually presented at the end of the schedule (the closing display), but La Ronde has decided to do it at the mid-point of the competition. (The display scheduled for the award ceremony is no longer a 30-minute show, rather a 10-minute one which have been usually presented later in the season, outside the official event, to shoot the remaining pieces.)

I'm not really enthusiast to have an off-competition display at the mid-point of the schedule. It's anti-climactic and I would prefer to have it as a regular, 30-minute closing display. However, it is my understanding that a such display is a marketing strategy to create a "buzz" around a particular show (that is the idea behind the "Feu des étoiles" and a tribute to Céline Dion is obviously wise for that) and to make this buzz soon enough in order to increase the attendance for the remaining displays. It is obvious for me who attend the shows at La Ronde since 1996 that the on-site attendance has dramatically declined.

Though I don't like to have an off-competition display at this point, I don't really know what La Ronde can do else to reverse this trend, so I am not entirely comfortable to criticize this strategy. At least, I think we have to wait for the actual impact. To criticize just for the pleasure will not get us anywhere if Six Flags or the sponsors believe that the attendance is no longer large enough to support the event.

Fred

I dunno Fred; the show is a Loto-Quebec-funded thing, and I would never pay to see it at La Ronde unless I was already wanting to go to La Ronde all day and ride 8 rides (with all the lineups, that's all the riding I got in, in 9 hours of on-site time when I was there once on a Saturday). But as for "buzz", the pyromusical competition is just one of the dozens of things that makes Montreal such a great place to visit in the summer, and the economic benefits experienced by the city could be quantified and broken-down by event such that I believe the municipal government of Montreal and its surrounding "cities", plus the provincial government of Quebec could completely fund the event knowing full-well that they will reap the rewards. Everyone loves fireworks! The combined "non-paying" viewing public for the sum of the shows is in the millions of people, and even if just 10% of those are from out-of-town, and even if only 5% of those out-of-towners are there primarily FOR the fireworks, that's still 10-20 million they are spending over the course of the summer in Montreal (hotels, restaurants, other entertainment, etc.), making "non-paying" a non-issue.

I also think that the show could (and would) go on even if La Ronde folded. This is a big, unique thing that puts Montreal on the map, and I am certain that if necessary, the government WOULD step in to keep it going because of the economic benefits, buying up or renting the viewing area at La Ronde and charging people less than the current admission fee to the park to watch from that vantage point.

I don't know that a Celine Dion show would appeal to anyone but Quebecers, and even there, I'm not sure how many Quebecers actually like her music more than they like her fame and her origins in this province. A competing show in arguably the world's most prestigious pyromusical competition would probably be at least as viable economically. If they want a tribute, save it for the closing show, like you said - there's always a show each year (either opening or closing, but in recent years it has been closing) that is non-competing, and a perfect chance for Quebecers to revel in their own shared fame having spawned the world's most loved and hated singer. As for whether her music is more popular than the main thematic musical selections in popular, fantasy movies (e.g. Lord of the Rings), or things like the opera cliche that Italy abused this year...I have no evidence to support or deny that claim. I have actually brought a radio to listen in, once in awhile, when there WERE good musical selections (the Canadian and American shows of 2008 spring to mind, beautiful shows, excellent music, and I still watch the videos of those shows I obtained from this website), but since synchronisation is lost on anyone not at La Ronde (light speed vs. speed of sound makes synchronisation pointless farther away), it's not worth it most of the time (and I am very glad the winds were so strong for Portugal so I wasn't accidentally exposed to their horrific soundtrack). For nearly all of the shows I've seen, the musical aspect of pyromusical was a total non-issue.

Because of that, the only reason I don't like this arrangement is that I get to see one less competing show this year as I'm moving at the end of the month. However, I am sure I will enjoy the show, I'm sure it will be exciting and creative, and I probably won't hear the music anyway! So yes, I'm critical, but I'm not going to let this poor decision ruin my enjoyment of loud, colourful exploding things.

I dunno Fred; the show is a Loto-Quebec-funded thing,

All the shows, competing or otherwise, are funded by Loto Quebec as well as a grant from the provincial government (which is still making up the loss due to the cancellation of tobacco sponsorship in 2000).

Since the City of Montreal owns the land La Ronde stands on (they leased it to Six Flags) were Six Flags to fold, it would revert back to Montreal. My dream theory is that Loto Quebec will team up with Cirque du Soleil and link the Casino to a permanent site for the Cirque together with La Ronde, should this ever happen. They could rebuild the monorail to get people to Casino for after-park gambling fun as well as to see Cirque shows. It all makes perfect sense to me!

As for the quality or otherwise of the soundtracks, the primary focus is, of course, fireworks - and that's the main reason people go to watch, not to listen to their favourite artists. Of course, a good or excellent soundtrack is a bonus - and it should be noted that all the winners in the past several years have had excellent soundtracks from both the content and production point of view.

Paul.

Hi Chris,

Thank you again for sharing those additional photographs. From the moment the 2010 schedule was released, I was not all too delighted with an off-competition display dead-smack in the middle of the whole thing as this causes discontinuity and, as Fred stated, invites the feeling of an anti-climax. As such, I, too, echo your sentiments. However, the display seems quite interesting in its overall design, especially considering that it isn't a participant. Additionally, it is, after all, a full 30-minute fireworks display to look forward to. Still, it would have been nice to have the Celine Dion tribute as a closing show following the awards ceremony (on the same night) while having a vacancy for an additional entrant - that way you maintain 10 displays, 9 of which are entrants, while having a formal 30-minute closing show (like we used to have) following all the anticipation and suspense during the awards ceremony.

For myself, I am a little more saddened by the fact that there is, once again, no closing display this year, which has me a little concerned about the upcoming years where a closing display, too, may be nowhere to be found. I sincerely hope that this is not the trend I fear.

Regardless of what happens, however, I will always feel privileged to attend this competition.

Trav.