2008 HSBC Celebration of Light,

Every year in the last couple of weeks of July and the beginning August English Bay is treated to a truly spectacular event: the Celebration of Light. This is an international competition of fireworks set to music. The night sky over English Bay becomes an explosion of color and music for hundreds of thousands of spectators to enjoy. People camp out all day on the beach to get a cherished viewing location for the 10pm show. It is estimated that the Celebration of Light brings financial benefit to the City of Vancouver to the tune of $65 million annually!

Past winners of this international competition are:

2007: Canada
2006: Mexico
2005: Sweden
2004: Sweden
2003: China

This years teams and competition dates:

Canada: July 23
USA: July 26
China: July 30
Grand Finale: August 2

Judging this event can not be easy! I know that without fail there is never any consensus as to who had the best fireworks when discusses with my friends. Everyone like different teams and displays for different reasons. It is a competition of fireworks set to a musical theme so often musical preference has a lot to do with someone's enjoyment of a particular display.

This is a quote from the Celebration of Light web site about judging:

"Judges score each competitor on five criteria:
• General Concept - presentation, structure and scale of display
• Colour - choice and variety of colours
• Originality - design and architecture
• Quality of Production - rhythm of fireworks, volume of effects and quality
of construction
• Correlation of Music - choice of music, synchronization of effects,
adaptation of moods
Criteria are given a score out of 20 and each of the judges submits their scores
out of 100 on each competitor. The country with the highest average score is
the winner. The winner is announced before the Grande Finale on August 2nd. "

and this year there is a twist:

"In 2008, people attending the fireworks can vote for their favourite fireworks
through the BC Hydro People’s Choice Award. Through cell phone messaging
on the night of each performance, individuals can text their score for each
country. Scores will be tallied and a winner will be announced on the evening of
the grand finale. Everyone who texts in their score will be eligible to win a great
prize from BC Hydro. "

 

This event is attended by hundreds of thousands of people each night of the competition. As would be expected with an event of this size focusing on a particular area of Vancouver like English Bay, there are road closures on the days of the event. Please not the following road closures: Off site link if your going to be out on the water please read these boat safe tips: Off site link

This world-class event is something that my friends and I look forward to every year! It crazy trying to move around in a crowd of that many people. Every street in the West End & English Bay area is full of people. No cars can move. Watching a site like tens of thousands of people coming down Davie Street, a street normally full of traffic, is something to see. In my younger years I worked retail in some shops on Davie Street. Fireworks nights were the craziest nights I ever worked. It would be a crowd of tens of thousands of people streaming down the street and stopping in to stores. At first it would start with just a few but then it would grown in to this enormous crown all wanting drinks and food! Then as 10pm nears the all start to disappear, headed into English Bay. By 10pm the show is starting and the crowds are watching. For 45 minutes its a ghost town where before there were so many people you couldn't even focus. For a retail clerk on those nights its a marathon of customer service. It should be a metal event at our 2010 Olympic Games.

This is an event you must see if you are in the Vancouver area. We will be posting a full photo gallery of the 2008 Celebration of Light as the events occur. Look for that like to be posted here where we have the photos.