In exactly two weeks from now, the 34th edition of the Montreal International Fireworks Competition, L’International des Feux Loto-Québec, will begin. Here are some information, “fun facts,” and comments to entertain us before this anticipated season. Don’t hesitate to add yours!

Overview

- The 2018 edition will start on Saturday, July 7th. This is the latest opening date in the competition history and it continues a long-time trend (in the old time, it used to start in late May).

- This is the first line-up in the event history to list only one European entrant as part of the competitive program.

- Three contestants will perform for the very first time in Montreal : steyrFire (Austria), Dancing Fireworks Group (China), and Dragon Fireworks (Philippines). Apogée (Canada), who did the off-competition opening show in 2016, will also compete for the first time in Montreal.

The shows

- Dancing Fireworks Group will launch the 300th display in the Montreal competition history. The Chinese entrant has chosen a similar theme (“The Butterfly Lovers”) than Sunny International, which represented China in 2008.

- Long-time forum member “Reflections of Earth,” Vander, who used to comment the Montreal displays on a regular basis, works for Dragon Fireworks and is expected to be part of the team. This is the first Philippine entrant in the competition history.

- Pyrotecnico (USA) is (finally!) back in Montreal, 10 years after its debut performance which was awarded by the Gold Jupiter. Its stirring show “Rock Loves” featured a finale so intense that Paul’s camera turned to be overflowed. My “Pyrotecnico-proof” camera could capture the whole extravaganza and I put some segments on YouTube ; the video is still available here. This year, Pyrotecnico bets on the same theme with “Rock Loves... Redux.”

- Howard & Sons Pyrotechnics (Australia), which has already won a Bronze Jupiter (2011) and a Silver Jupiter (2008), will certainly struggle to reach the highest position on the podium. Their 2011 show was pivotal to the storyline of a National Geographic television documentary, which can be seen here.

- The American and Australian shows, scheduled at the end of the competition, are arguably among the most anticipated this year. Furthermore, both teams competed against each other in 2008 and won, respectively, the Gold and Silver Jupiter that year. What an epic battle on the horizon !

Politics and corporate

- As a result of the local election held in November 2017, Ms. Valérie Plante is now the Mayor of Montreal. She succeeded Denis Coderre and she is the first woman to fill that position. We will monitor whether the new mayor attend the fireworks competition at La Ronde this summer. No Montreal mayor has officially been present since Pierre Bourque in 2001.

- Six Flags has nominated Ms. Janine Durette President of La Ronde (the press release is available here. She is also the first woman to fill that position. According to her Linkedin profile, Ms. Durette was previously La Ronde Director of Finance and she had worked at Just for Laughs and Harris Decima, among other companies.

- Ms. Durette and other La Ronde officials are still registered to the Quebec government Registry of lobbyists. Their mandate is to negotiate changes to the lease between Six Flags and the City of Montreal regarding the sections on the rental and the International des Feux Loto-Québec. That mandate has been posted in the Registry in July 2015, and it has been renewed each year. That negotiation has apparently not succeeded with former mayor Denis Coderre.

- Contrasting information between 2016 and 2018 in the same registry allow us to know that Loto-Québec, the provincial Ministère du Tourisme, and Tourisme Montréal have reportedly increased their annual sponsorship, respectively, from $1,000,000 to $1,250,000, from $330,000 to $440,000, and from $10,000 to $15,000. (Details are available [url= here. )

The people

- Assuming he is going to return, Michel Lacroix is the official voice of the Montreal fireworks competition for the 29th season. Hopefully we will celebrate his 30th one in 2019!

- The 2018 jury is the 11th supervised by current coordinators, Lynda Normand and Denis Lono. They break the record held by Ms. Suzanne Morin who coordinated the popular jury during 10 seasons (1992-2001).

Online

I end this post with more self-centered items !

- We celebrate this year the 15th anniversary of the montreal-fireworks.com forum ! It was added by Paul Marriott on June 25, 2003 to his already well-known website.

- This topic is the 150th thread I start in the montreal-fireworks.com forum.

- This year, I also launch a Twitter feed (@pyro_fred) dedicated to the Montreal fireworks competition, which shall feature links to my main posts in this forum.

Que tombe la nuit ! Que la fête commence !

Fred
@pyro_fred (Twitter)

Fred,

thanks for the write-up. Hard to believe it's 15 years since the forum started! I remember sitting at Newark Airport around that time getting some of the final details right! My plan is to provide the usual interviews and coverage, though, I'm not sure about photographs. Bob's shoes are hard to fill but I'll see what can be done (same for video, too).

I'm looking forward your twitter feed Fred - and to the start of the competition! BTW, Vander will most definitely be involved in the Dragon Fireworks display - he will be arriving next week!

Paul.

Thank you Fred, it's always a pleasure reading all the information you put together. Thank you for taking the time and posting!

Two weeks to go, cant wait to be there! Thank you for the facts list @fredbastien.

Is @jbbank finally taking videos of the show?

Very interesting facts Fred!

Our team will arrive this Friday

Best Regards,
Vander

Hey Rovira,

I plan to attend plan to bring my video equipment but I don't seem to be getting anywhere in finding someone to talk to about good spots to film. The powers that be seem to have little interest in increasing their video exposure.

Do not give up! Maybe the powers that be have little interest, but I know most of the fans will apreciate the videos!

Change of program - Howard and Sons cannot attend so now we have Guiliani of Italy instead: https://www.sixflags.com/larondeen/linternational-des-feux/feuseven

Hi friends,

In one week our team starts the flight from Vienna to Montreal.
It is a great pleasure and honor for us to be invited to this event.

We look forward to seeing you!

René
steyrFire Austria

René, I am sure that many of us are looking forward to attend your show. (You came close to be the one and only European entrant in this edition!)

Hopefully, Paul will have the opportunity to do an interview with each team, once again this year, and to report more info to us. In the meantime, it is the training day for 2018 jury members! https://twitter.com/pyro_fred/status/1013008150730084353

Fred
@pyro_fred

René - welcome to Montreal! We're all looking forward to your display! Best of luck - it's always difficult the first time you compete here, but others have been both debutantes and Gold Jupiter winners (notably Jubilee Fireworks in 2015).

Paul.

Thank you, Fred and Paul!

Tomorrow evening we'll arrive in Montreal.

Let's see what the next days will bring

since I believe that steyrFire hardly anyone knows - here is a video of our 2017 show in Monte Carlo!
https://vimeo.com/229554940


For Montreal 90% of the products we use were produced by "SCARPATO PIROTECNICA
di Antonio Scarpato", Rimini.

See you soon!

René
steyrFire

I can’t wait to see what you have for the montreal audience @joker

Your style is very clean, technique, I am sure it will be a nice show. I love the Elvis segment with the numbers (wich are very neat, impresisve) I saw somewhere steyrfire have an special mechanism to reproduce numbers and letters with mines. I m quite sure you ll be using that effect in Montreal.

I really want to know the soundtrack, some songs I read on La ronde webpage are exciting.

Lets pray for the best weather conditions and a big finale!

First of all I want to say that the show design was made by Niki.
So I don't know the details ;-)

I think the complete soundtrack will be published by the organisation team of La Ronde right in time ...

René

...waiting at Istanbul airport for the flight ...

Here is an interesting feature story (in French) about those who judge the fireworks displays:

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1111076/juges-international-feux- loto-quebec-spectacle-la-ronde-montreal-artifice-competition-concours- pyrotechnie

Fred