Upcoming event: Celebration of Light fireworks competition, 2010

It’s that time of the year again, when people from all over the Metro Vancouver area swarm into the downtown core and Kitsilano area to feast their eyes on the most exciting fireworks show in Western Canada. 

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this annual fireworks competition, this is actually a musical fireworks show that takes place during a timespan of around 25 minutes. So if you are looking for a non-stop barrage of fireworks in the sky with no purpose, you might be disappointed. This is a more artistic kind of fireworks show with slow moments that build up to exciting moments, and each show has a theme. 

The Celebration of Light competition takes place on four separate days, with 3 and sometimes 4 different countries competing with their own special arrangements and themes. It always begins on a Wednesday, and then is followed by another show on Saturday, and then Wednesday and Saturday again. When only 3 countries compete, the final Saturday show will be what is called the Finale night when the other countries use a portion of their presentation to form another full 25 minute fireworks show. 

This year, we are lucky, because 4 different countries are competing. The reason I say that is because I have never really been a fan of the Finale show. The individual shows are usually pretty good, but when they try to mix up the themes into a finale, it just never seems to work. In fact, I’m not even interested in watching any more finale shows. Since 4 countries are competing this  year, though, there will be a full presentation from that country on day 4, and if it is the same as other years when there were 4 countries competiting, that will be followed by a short finale with an especially large amount of fireworks going off at once. 

This year, the competing countries for the Celebration of Light fireworks show are:
(copied from the official Celebration of Light website) 

U.S.A.

Date	Wednesday, July 21
Theme	In the Mood
Description	The Show is a tribute to the Big Band era and promises to be high energy, with a lot of hoppin’ swingin’ fun. The show opens with mine shots, lots of color and movement of devices and develops into patterns, water effects and fountains, then to an exciting finale.

---

Spain

Date	Wednesday, July 24
Theme	Hell & Heaven
Description	Hell & Heaven is an exercise of imagination and force, the audience will enjoy with the recreation of the fight beetwwen the light and the darkness. With his particular style, Pirotecnia Igual mix the power of the Iberian fire with the last trend choreographies, all this using the last technologies of desing and display.

---

Mexico

Date	Wednesday, July 28
Theme	Journey
Description	A wide variety of rythms were selected for this Journey, we play with Rock “en español”, pop, Mexican contemporary, and blends of popular (Banda) music with electronic elements. We invite everybody to enjoy this journey thru rythms and emotions.

---

China

Date	Wednesday, July 31
Theme	The Butterfly Lovers legend
Description	Coming from a wonderful Chinese history tale, the public will travel through a world full of sound and visual and they will enjoy exotic choregraphies of fireworks which will take on a whole new dimension.

---

Keep in mind that these fireworks are meant to be watched with musical accompaniment. Usually, it’s not a problem hearing the music, as they have some speakers located around the viewing areas and some people bring their own radios. If you are really unlucky, though, and there is a no music playing around you, you’re really going to miss out on the experience. Hopefully, you’ll be lucky enough to hear the music from where you are standing, or you could always bring your own radio with you.

One more thing I should mention is that if you want to get some drinks with your friends after the fireworks show, it’s extremely difficult to find a place. Most of the restaurants in the Davie Street area, for example, have people standing in the entrances blocking people from entering. You might get lucky, but your best bet is to go to a place that is a bit out of the way from the columns of crowds emptying out of the downtown area.

For more information about the Celebration of Light firworks event, you can check out the offical website here.