L'International des Feux Loto-Québec 2005
Montréal International Fireworks Competition Report

By Frédérick Bastien

Closing show Big Bang Saturday July 30th, 2005

Panzera S.A.S., designed by Pierpaolo Serafino.

"At the dawn of history 13 billion years ago, the universe was created with a Big Bang that signalled the birth of time and space. Celebrating the theme of renewal, this non-competitive closing fireworks gala at La Ronde will be produced (as tradition dictates) by Italian firm Panzera S.A.S. Using a vast array of stunning visual effects and the highest-quality pyrotechnics, this spectacular display will tell story of the universe’s creation, and will also echo the spirit of renewal that infuses this year’s Montreal International Fireworks Competition – thanks to the arrival of a new title sponsor, Loto-Québec, and a new broadcaster, 105.7 Rythme FM. "


A perfect summer night and the largest audience at La Ronde since the start of the 2005 season was the context of this closing display, which followed the prizing ceremony. The setup included a fifth ramp on the lake with five extra floating platforms. Since Paul Marriott doesn’t write a report about the closing show, I try to do it. Please note that some mistakes may occured, especially in the segmentation of the display. For instance, I describe parts 1 and 2 together since I was not able to do a difference between them. Also, English is my secondary language, so be indulgent to the grammatical component of this report. The narration from Pierre Walder appears in French between brackets […].

Parts 1 and 2 to the music Coup de foudre (unknown) and Seizure by Craig Armstrong. After the official countdown, a line of white flares at the back of ramp 2 lit up. Next, many volleys of salutes were followed by shells of silver comets and other shells of silver comets which included strobes. Shells creating small silver Niagara Falls burst in the middle of the sky with other shells of silver comets above. Then, many barrages of shells of white twinkling stars were fired for a long time. This sequence ended with a final barrage of larger shells of twinkling stars.

Part 3 to the music Session by Matrix, reloaded. [Au commencement des temps, l’univers fut créé. C’était il y a 13 milliards d’années.] This Matrix-based part of the show started with five sets of mines of whistling serpents, followed by cakes of crackling tourbillons, all fired from ramp 3. Then, shells of green meteor-headed comets appeared. This part continued with shells of silver comets. Next, strobes and crackling tourbillons were fired from candles. They were augmented by crackling shells with white crackling pistils. This segment dramatically ended with shell-of-shells filling the sky with blue stars in synchronization with the music.

Part 4 to the music Teahouse by Matrix, reloaded. [À l’origine, c’est le vide composé d’une énergie inconnue qui se matérialise. Notre univers est né. Il engendre l’espace et le temps. C’est le Big Bang!] As a prelude to the anticipated Big Bang, this short segment began with a barrage of whistling serpents launched from the main firing ramps and filling the sky, followed by other whistling serpents fired from ramp 5. A barrage of salutes concluded this part.

Part 5 to the music Trinity Dream by Matrix. Cakes of yellow and green stars went into action, followed by orange and silver angled-mines. Then, a wide range of pyrotechnic pieces were fired, creating an amazing disorder and it was very difficult to take notes about all what happened. It is the Big Bang! In addition to the cakes of stars and mines, meteor-headed comets were horizontally fired from ramp 3, from the left side to the right and from the right side to the left. These comets surfed on the lake. In addition, mines of comets, tourbillons and strobes burst, with shells of tourbillons above. Next, gold mines erupted near the ground with large shells of kamuros above. This chaotic segment continued with gold nautical mines. Candles shot multicolour stars as the nautical mines continued. Then, several fans of strobe-headed silver comets appeared with more kamuros above. Weeping- willow shells filling the sky brought this intense segment to a close.

Part 6 to the music Les fleurs d’Harrison by Bruno Coulais. [La gravitation formera les étoiles et les planètes. Ces étapes ne dureront qu’une fraction de seconde mais détermineront à jamais les lois de la nature.] Following the narrative, the sky was quickly filled of stars from multi-break shells. Then, shells of silver stars, turning to green, with bombettes producing clusters of crackling silver stars below. This pattern continued, followed by pistils with blue stars in the centre of the sphere. Candles shot green stars with loud strobes as the beat of the music increased. They were augmented by shells of red stars and farfalle shells with a cluster of blue stars in the center. Again, the sky was quickly filled of blue stars from multi-break shells. To conclude this segment, candles shot red and green stars with other shells above.

Part 7 to the music Mona Lisa Overdrive by Matrix. [Dans un rayonnement de lumière, l’univers grandit à une vitesse prodigieuse.] This segment opened with a line of huge mines of red stars, bursting one after the other from both extremities to the center of the firing ramp, with a last mine from the fourth ramp. This sequence was repeated in a perfect synchronization with the music. Then, a barrage of red stars mines burst with kamuros above. The red light theme continued for a moment as candles shot red stars, augmented by shells of red stars above. Next, large shells for red meteor-headed comets burst in the sky, followed by shells of silver comets. Then, bombettes of gold comets burst with larger shells of gold comets above. Finally, pistils with a centre sphere of blue stars burst, bringing this segment to a close.

Part 8 to the music Lucifer by Alan Parsons. [L’univers, cet immense four cosmique, a maintenant la taille de notre système solaire.] Silver nautical fountains were launched on the lake to cheers from the audience. As these glowing water-based pieces continued, bombette of green and yellow fireworks burst above. Next, the sky was quickly filled by large shells of white comets. Below, candles shot smaller bombettes producing blue stars, then silver stars. The latter were augmented by shells of silver stars above.

Part 9 to the music The Last Verse by Eric Serra. Following the music, the beat of the display became faster with shells of red stars and white tourbillons below. Then, more tourbillons with shells of red heart above. Shells of double heart then appeared, followed by other shells of heart inside a blue ring. Shells of silver crossettes with a silver pistil in the centre concluded this segment.

Part 10 to the music Where is the Walrus by Alan Parsons. [L’univers, tel un gigantesque ballon, gonfle à la vitesse de la lumière et devient transparent. La gravitation orchestre la matière et de ce balai naîtront, 200 millions d’années plus tard, les premières étoiles.] Multicolour stars were vertically shot from cakes along the firing ramp as girandola flew up between each column of stars. For a moment, shells of spiral burst as the cakes continued to shot stars below.

Part 11 to the music Matrix reloaded suite by Matrix. We moved to a more serene part with overlapping fans of stars and bombettes shot from candles. Then, a line of wheels along ramp 3 came to life with weeping-willow shells above. Next, shells dispatched small clusters of green stars in a cross-shape. This continued up to a final volley of shells of twinkling silver stars.

Part 12 to the music Jurassic Park by John Williams. [Dix milliards d’années après le Big Bang, la vie apparaît sur la Terre. Des dinosaures à nos jours, la Terre, ce grand vaisseau spatial sur lequel nous vivons, tourne à une vitesse stupéfiante sous la douce chaleur de sa bonne étoile, le soleil.] The penultimate segment began with blue stars shot from candles. Then, several nautical mines burst for many seconds. These candles and nautical mines continued as shells of silver comets burst above. The sun theme announced in the narration became obvious as a fan of candles shot charcoal comets on ramp 4. Maybe to illustrate the planets around the sun, small white gerbs appears along ramps 2 and 3, appropriately using the layout of La Ronde’s site. Next, candles shot white comets from ramp 4, with bombettes and shells of white comets above. This pattern continued for a moment. Then, weeping-willow shells burst in the sky and long burning comets joined bombettes shot below from candles. Other candles of silver comets with shells of silver stars above were followed by shells of red and green stars, bringing this segment to a close.

Part 13 to the music Daphinis and Chloé by Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal. [Cette terre où il fait bon vivre et où nous espérons vous retrouver tous, chers spectateurs, l’année prochaine en ce lieu magique qu’est La Ronde, pour une nouvelle aventure de musique, de danse, de feux d’artifice dans le cadre de l’International des feux Loto-Québec.] Flares lit up again at the back of ramp 2. Shells of green stars and whistling serpents burst in the sky, as a candle of tourbillons strangely appeared on the left side of ramp 3. Candles vertically shot comets and crackling strobes. More bombettes of green stars and whistling serpents continued. Then, several barrages of farfalle shells with a centre of blue stars, followed by double farfalles. Next, more candles of whistling serpents and bombettes of white comets. Again, some pieces appeared strangely, that is, shells of double heart. This final segment continued with candles of multicolour stars which burst into many other stars. They were augmented by shells of stars above. Shell-of-shells of blue stars burst, bringing us to the last seconds of the show with a deluge of pieces, including shells and candles of multicolour stars, and salutes. The display continued to grow despite a sometime discreet music. The audience obviously enjoyed the last seconds with a barrage of shells and loud salutes.

This was a very good display from Panzera S.A.S. The narrative was just enough to link the segments and to create a story. The soundtrack was original and the designers used all available space with many nautical effects. The show included a wide range of pyrotechnic effects and I am sure that this report doesn’t do justice to this component of the show. However, the synchronization was not always clear. More note-synchronized segments would have been welcomed and I am not sure that the last music was appropriate, since it was sometime too discreet for a final big bang.

I just edited this thread, so you can read my report about the closing ceremony.

Fred

Hi guys,

I did enjoy this last display by "La Ronde" and I thought it was filled with action from start to end! Even the finale was intense and made me excited, which did happen only 4 times out of 10 this season! Although I had new batteries in my camera, they died on me during the finale so I had to act real quickly and put other batteries, hoping they would be good enough to finish the work. So I have the finale recorded, but the middle part is missing I am sorry about that, Trav and Enkil and all others who were interested to see it on a clip.......unfortunately, you will be able to see it in two very short parts!

Thanks to everybody for all their nice comments. I feel the respect that we all have for each other, even though we might not agree all the time with one another. This is such a nice place to be part of.

Like I said earlier, I will send my dvd to Paul when it's ready.

Have a great week! ;-)

Pierre

Fred,

Thanks for the review! It's really appreciated from all of us. Like Paul and all of us, we really don't write the reviews, but I'm happy you decided to do one! To be honest, I was thinking about it, but I was only looking foward to the ending, which was kind of disappointing.

Otherwise, I loved all the effects used in the show, especially the extensive use of those double heart shells. There were quite a bit of salutes and a huge volley that was BY FAR the loudest I've heard this year.

Speaking of that, those were no ordinary salutes! You know which ones I'm talking about, right? They were the ones not to long after the beginning. They were VERY bright and made one massive noise. This would have been nice for the ending.

The show was also a bit mared by smoke, but it wasn't nearly as bad as last year. This is mainly because of the lack of wind, which I was concerned about since the morning of that day! And funny, that's the day I forgot to give my weather report!

Pierre,

Don't worry about about missing the middle part! You're not perfect and you honestly, in my humble opinion, made a big contribution to this forum! You know, whenever you post anything and I see your name, my thoughts turn to finales! Really!

Pierre=Finales

Anyways, I really look foward to the clips! Although most of them were not as impressive, it's always a pleasure to view them again! Once again, I, and all of us, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Other than that, if I don't hear from you soon, have a great week my friend! You made this year's competition an enjoyable one, just like last year.

Regards,

Trav.

Hi Trav,

Thank you so much for your kind words, my friend. You always have a nice word for everyone in here, and I think every member really appreciate your comments and descriptions.

I can understand why I remind you of finales Maybe I should change my nickname (Salutes Lover), to "Finales loaded with salutes Lover"......LOL but that would be much too long a name!

Have a great weekend !

Pierre aka Salutes Lover aka Finales Lover

Pierre,

Thx for your kind words, too! Really, you are a great friend to me and all of us here and it's always a pleasure to read your comments, too, especially since we have the same tastes in expectations, like many of us do!

As for your username related to finales, yes, you should consider yourself as Finales Lover, too! I was thinking "Colorful, intense and lengthy finale Lover!" I don't think that would fit, though!

Regards,

Trav.