Celebration of Light

:"This is about the Vancouver Celebration of Light fireworks festival, for other uses see Celebration of Light (disambiguation)"

The Celebration of Light (formerly known as "Benson & Hedges Symphony of Fire") is an annual musical fireworks competition in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The first "Symphony of Fire" was held from July 25 to August 5 of 1990.

The 2008 HSBC Celebration of Light was held on July 23 to August 2, 2008.

Overview

The event takes place in English Bay at 10:00 PDT on four nights, beginning on a Wednesday and ending on a Saturday, over a two week period between July and August. Each of the four performances have at least a two-day separation for preparation for the next competitor. Three companies representing their country perform a twenty-five minute firework display set to music. A grand finale is performed on the last day by all the competitors. The 2006 competition has been the only exception because of the addition of a 4th competitor, the finale was shortened to 6-minutes and without components from participating countries.

Music can be heard from large speakers set up on the beach or on radio simulcast by ROCK 101 (101.1 FM) during the event.

Over 1.6 million spectators come to the closest viewing points at the West End, Kitsilano, and Stanley Park to view the event, many of them coming from outside British Columbia. The traffic is closed in the West End and Kits Point each year starting with different time. Roads open again at 11:30 p.m. Vancouver Police, British Columbia Ambulance Service, and St. John Ambulance volunteers collaborate to provide assistance to deal with potential emergencies with the large crowds present at the Celebration of Light.

In 2000, the Celebration of Light seemed about to be canceled because of a new law preventing events from being sponsored by tobacco companies [ [http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/showdoc/cs/T-11.5/bo-ga:l_IV/20080909/en?noCookie Tobacco Act - no events sponsorship] ] . At the time, the event was sponsored by Benson & Hedges under the name Symphony of Fire. HSBC, among other organizations, now sponsors the event.

In 2006, the number of teams competing was four instead of three, as it had been in other years. Mexico competed on finale night, with a shortended final show put on by all four countries following Mexico's show.

The 2007 fireworks was close to being cancelled, until last minute sponsorship contributions by London Drugs and the Concord Pacific Group were announced on March 5.

2008 Program

The 2008 HSBC Celebration of Light winner was Canada, making back-to-back wins for Archangel Fireworks Inc.

Previous Years

Because of the change in sponsor, records are difficult to find before the year 2001.

2006

2003

2000

1997

References

* [http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/960611/a2.htm City of Vancouver administrative report]
* [http://web.archive.org/ Internet Archive] Wayback Machine
* [http://www.tobacco.org/news/54397.html tobacco.org: Tobacco firm ends funding of Symphony of Fire]

External links

* [http://www.celebration-of-light.com/ Official HSBC Celebration of Light website]
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4980820833848097826&hl=en Full video clip of the Italian July 26, 2006 firework display]
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8126022483441588407&hl=en Full video clip of the Chinese July 29, 2006 firework display]
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-411320386348006703&hl=en Full video clip of the Czech Republic August 2, 2006 firework display]
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1292876288607818744&hl=en Full video clip of the Mexican August5, 2006 firework display]
* [http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=2110238627003778564&hl=en-CA Full video clip of Spain July 25, 2007 fireworks display]
* [http://blip.tv/file/1111188 Full video clip of Canada July 23, 2008 fireworks display]
* [http://blip.tv/file/1117999 Full video clip of USA July 26, 2008 fireworks display]