Vander, longtime forum member reflections_of_earth and winner of the 2018 Gold Jupiter, is competing in Gatineau this evening. Here's his sound track:

http://montreal-fireworks.com/ReportBlog/?p=2211

There should be live streams to watch.

Good luck Vander!

Paul.

thanks paul!! glad to see it in the blog, makes it more official!

I did travel to Gatineau last night, to attend Vander's display in this competition.

It was my first time there, so it is hard to review the show as I can't compare with other entrants from a live experience (I have only seen Mylène's live videos). The audience takes place on the backside of a national museum along the Outaouais River, and the Parliament is in the background, on the other side of the river. The area is great. The atmosphere was much more serene and family friendly than at La Ronde, I would say.

I had tickets for seats in the pink section, very close to the booth where the pyros are located (I acknowledge Yanick Roy for his welcome both before and after the show, which allowed me to chat with Vander, other team members and fans). The sound system was not as powerful as the one at La Ronde, but I could hear all the musics without problem during the show. There is no countdown to build anticipation, but a kind of well-written prologue about the art of fireworks, etc.

Once again, there were rain episodes during the day, but we didn't experience any precipitation during the evening (except drops of water from a tree just above my seat!). However, the wind was not very cooperative and a barrage of smoke quickly appeared between the barge and our location. It was a 21-minute show.

The weather theme was very original and interesting, I believe there would be different ways to extend it to 30 minutes and to add various components for a future Montreal extravaganza. I even have a number of ideas, in case where Vander wants me as an advisor, and I am sure Travis could cooperate too!

From what I could see, there was a nice range of products and firing patterns with very few repetitions during the display, despite being shot from one barge only. It was also nicely synchronized with the musics. Once part, about rain, was very well done with an accumulation of horsetails, after the smoke had moved away. Other visitors around me have expressed their appreciation several times during the show!

There is one more entrant (Ukraine) next Wednesday and the winner will be announced shortly after that (probably next Saturday, I imagine).

Fred

Here's a video of the display that was taken from the Ottawa side of the river, where there was less smoke accumulation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkT2Ms1iSGY

Very nice show indeed!

Paul.

Vander and his team did an outstanding job with this display, and so my congratulations, too!

After learning that the display would be centered so much on elements of weather, I grew very, very excited to see how this it would appear in relation to such an original and explorative theme! Numerous displays in the past used aspects of weather but never so devoted like the one Vander devised for this entry! I have actually waited a very long time to see a weather-related pyromusical, and so my hope is that this display's success will eventually bring Vander and the Philippines back to Montreal under an extension of such a theme that arguably has limitless potential!

I also had some opportunity to converse with Vander with respect to expected weather conditions for his display. Much like the case for the closing show at La Ronde, I expressed some concern about the possibility that extensive smoke accumulation could become an issue, even though we were not too worried about rainfall/thunderstorms intercepting the 22-minute display time. Thankfully, the display was much better seen from the other side of the river, near-similar to how we saw the closing show from Notre-Dame Street.

Well done, Vander!!

Trav.

I'm happy to report that Vander won the competition!

Paul.

thanks paul! and thank you for all the support throughout the competition!

best regards,

vander

Congratulations, Vander!!! Wow!

Really hope to see this theme re-visited whenever the Philippines do return to the Montreal International Fireworks Competition!

Keep on being awesome!

Trav.

And now Vander won the public prize too! Well done!!

Paul.