Saturday, July 21, 2012

Féérie (France) Fireworks Review

Féérie from France had already taken part in the competition 5 years ago, and are well renowned for
having presented the french citizens with a display on the Eiffel Tower on New Years Eve in 2000.

After a few rides on the tallest ride in the park, there was 2 minutes to spare to find a good spot in the front of the display where we would be able to see the lower effects. Sadly, no room was given to my friend and I, therefore, we decided to move out the park, due to the large groups of people still flooding in. The display was already starting and we were only about halfway towards the exit of the park, where we kept figuring out where a decent spot to get some footage to share with others. Finally 15 minutes later, halfway through the display, we found a spot near the bridge where the echo's were very resounding and the large shells gave a big thump effect to all the individuals near us. The display lacked some new effects, and a lot of the shells used were quite repetitive, this includes the salute terminated stars that were used for almost 5 minutes with many photoflash shells. The finale itself had quite an impact for a French firm, and had a good amount of intensity that built and built with many shells and ended of with a barrage of titanium salute terminated serpents. An enjoyable display indeed but did not have enough impact to beat the Canadian display, and might not be a contender for the Jupiter, nonetheless, I agree this display was a well presented display with somewhat good selections of music. The largest calibre of shells used in the display were 8 inches in diameter (40 shells of that calibre were used), when some people thought they were 10 inch shells. It was quite disappointing to not see 12 inch shells to add much more of a wider effect upon the display below.

The video & photo's below were taken with a my cell phone, due to the fact that the quality was much better than the quality on my camcorder. View the montage here.

Photo taken by Pyromight @ pyromight.blogspot.com

Photo taken by Pyromight @ pyromight.blogspot.com

Photo taken by Pyromight @ pyromight.blogspot.com

Photo taken by Pyromight @ pyromight.blogspot.com

Photo taken by Pyromight @ pyromight.blogspot.com

Photo taken by Pyromight @ pyromight.blogspot.com



Sunday, July 15, 2012

Sirius Pyrotechnics (Canada) Fireworks Review

My apologies to those who visited my blog to read more about the previous reviews of the displays that happened over the few weeks, I was unable to attend those events. Nonetheless, my review for Canada's display is here below. Enjoy!

The debut of Sirius Pyrotechnics, lead by Patrick Brault (a former veteran of the La Ronde fireworks set up crew) and his co-designer Luis, was to kick off on a hot and humid 30C night in Montreal. This was surely a well anticipated display to begin with. Unfortunately I did not have my camera to capture such amazing footage, it would have been something worth sharing.


The display began very well in synchronization and had great pace with red strobes well aligned in front of the large gathering of crowds. There was a much spread out display compared to the other various displays I have noticed in the past. Shells and candles traveled long distances away from the ramps and adjacent to the crowd. The transitions were well done and lots of interesting colours flourished everyones eyes including myself. There was extensive use of all ramps and great effects and product were what gave the crowd tremendous amounts of applause from almost all points of the display.

Half way through the display, the pacing was still great and had great timing with the rhythm of the music. Fans of candles gave great ooo's and ah's from the crowd as well as the mixture of candles. Some small flaws of product were noticed near the one shots and candles including premature fires and a couple pieces that did not fire. Large quantities of shells filled the sky at crescendos and kept a very good balance below on the effects. The display packed superb variations of product that included girandolas (flying saucers), strobes, and screeching mines as well as tour billions with reports which I believe must have been from Soldi (could be wrong however). Some shells seemed to have large punch in them, after reading Paul's interview, those 10 inch shells had the power of 12 inch shells at multiple moments. The smaller shells as well, including salutes seemed to have lots of power and gave significant thumps to my chest. Though this could be only me having the thought, after it being a display I have viewed from the park since almost eight or nine years.

The ending had superb flows to it. The second to last song was Linkin Park's Waiting For The End gave the crowd and myself the impression that the faux finale WAS the finale with a very rapid succession of shells filling the sky in colour and dozens of mines and candles below and ending off with a large barrage of titanium salutes below. As everyone started cheering very loudly and some people rose, Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars started to play as everyone gathered attentiveness and sat back down. I had wondered when Linkin Park's song commenced, that it was still another 5 minutes till the show was supposed to end and surprisingly, they managed to fit in the last song in under 3 minutes. At the chorus, gold shells began to fill the sky and mines of gold built in. More into the final minute and at the final chorus, the pace began to increase and increase until everyone was roaring and cheering. I began to stomp my feet and withstood the incredible force of hundreds of shells of all sizes filling the sky in more gold with powerful one shots in front. Following this, barrages of thunder mine candles (definitely from Panzera) began to take place with higher increase in shells filling the sky, and finally tremendous volleys of gold shells of high caliber, medium caliber, mines and salutes ripped the sky and my ears apart with the most immense force I have ever withstood from few dozen yet fearce nautical salutes above the ramp 3, on the water. This ended with me cheering to all my capabilities, temporary hearing impairment and the crowd around me experienced the same. A wonderful finale!

Gathering up all the sights I saw earlier, this display truly made a landmark in what I call a display! I was truly impressed especially with it being the first appearance for the company. In my personal thought, it might have knocked Royale's display and Fireworks Spectacular's display. The finale had great pacing, and the quantity doubled and tripled to all capabilities. The ground salutes above the water really made the finale tremendously noisy and made me WOW for such a long period of time. I could be wrong to others, but I believe this will be a tough one to beat and definitely has a chance of taking a Jupiter. Patrick really made the display something extraordinary and vibrant. The entire synchronization was terrific with the mixture of popular music that made it pleasant for many young adults who grew up listening to Linkin Park, M83, Jonsi and Snow Patrol in their infance. If I gave the display a rating myself, I'd throw a 9/10 for a well gathered show. Let's see what Greece and the other upcoming participants are preparing to gather to win a Jupiter.