Once again, I'll be helping put on the Canada Day display in Lions Park, Knowlton on Friday 1st July 2005. The display will be shot at around 9:45pm and is scheduled to last 20 minutes - quite a bit longer than last year. I can promise that there will be some very interesting effects this year - especially as we have an award winning designer working with us this year.

Head down highway 10, take exit 90 and enjoy a fun day.

Paul.

Paul,

Just make sure to bring an umbrella, just in case, as that cold front is coming through and could bring potential volatile weather, especially into southern Quebec. It will still be warm, though, but that serves as a catalyst. And stay hydrated, if you're going to be working hard.

Despite that, I'm sure it will be a fun day. Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it.

Have fun and make sure you tell us all about it. Since it's going to be longer and going to have unique effects, you might want to mention those, as well.

Best regards,

Trav.

Yes, Mother!

I sound like a mommy, don't I?

We all learn from those rainy days.

Paul,

Don't forget to fill use in!

Trav.

LOL. I'll make sure I have an umbrella. And don't worry, I'll make sure I write a report on the display ... though I probably won't see too much as I'm one of the firing crew. BTW, just to let you know that one of the crew just happens to have a Gold Jupiter award from the Montreal Fireworks competition ... so we know it's going to be a great show

Paul.

Alright then, Paul.

All I can say is to have a good time!

Regards,

Trav.

Here's a brief report of Friday's display.

We started setting up at around 2:15pm and everything went really well until a big thunderstorm passed through at 6:30pm, forcing us to put the candle racks back into the truck to help keep them dry. Fortunately, by this point, all the mortar racks had been covered in foil so we hoped that everything would be OK.

Despite the rain, I confidently predicted that the weather would clear up and that we'd have a good evening. Sure enough, the sun came out just before 7pm and it stayed dry until showtime, 10pm.

The display site lends itself to multi-level displays so we had a front of candles and mines, consisting of five positions, together with three positions for wheels. All the front positions were fired using Pyrodigital and we had around nine scenes (if the wheels and Angel Wings are included). The shells, ranging up to 6", were all hand fired, except for the two finales which were chain fused with delays and slow match.

As well as the candle and mine fronts, we also had some interesting one-shot comet sequences moving left and right, together with the mines and other fans of comets. This added movement and excitement to the display. The candles were arranged in all sorts of interesting patterns, with crossing comets from the left and right as well as fans on the other positions at different times. The scenes were arranged around the candle groups so that appropriate shells were fired at mid and high levels to utilize the sky as much as possible.

It was good to hear the ooohs and ahhhs and cheers coming from the crowd. We'd decided to trick them by firing a faux finale. Indeed, after this was fired, you could tell that many people thought everything was over as applause started. We had a 15 second pause between the faux finale and the real one. By the end of the display, people were cheering so the trick definitely worked. We also fired some studatas and mosaic shells during the display and finale which definitely delighted the audience.

Thirty seconds after the display was over, a torrential downpour started! I had seen lightning on the horizon at 9:58pm so we were lucky that everything remained dry for the 20 minutes of the display. Talk about good timing!

I'd like to thank the other members of the crew who worked hard to make this an enjoyable and memorable display.

Cheers,

Paul.

Paul,

I'm happy that you were lucky. I'm also happy that you guys played a trick on the audience between the faux and real finales. That always catches people off guard. Kind of like what we saw with Spain in 2001! Good old days.

I'm also happy that you took my advice and brought an umbrella. We had some storms here, as well, which did disrupt some festivities. The second storm was rather strong.

Trav.