On Saturday, the eve of Vancouver’s Pride Parade, Akariya Fireworks of Japan, entertained a crowd of between 300,000 and 400,000 capping off the 2014 Celebration of Light.
Photo Credit: Dru Blackie

An ambitious undertaking by the Japanese team, the massive scale and creativity of the performance made up for a few timing hiccups, heaviness in some parts, and sub-par audio for their Gladiator song (16:00) which isn’t noticeable in the video but was obvious live. They opted for a dramatic, mostly instrumental, emotionally moving soundtrack that worked well with the type of fireworks they used. More elaborate than the American show, Team Japan’s highs were a lot higher but lows were a bit lower. The US took a safer route to the challenge and although the execution of their program was better overall, the sheer size of the Japanese performance will likely be the difference-maker that will bring victory for the Akariya crew.

Below is Vancouver Daily’s recording of the show available in 1080p:

By no stretch am I an authority on fireworks competitions. I speak only as an average person who saw this year’s shows and I don’t think I would consider France in the running for the top spot. France had their go last Wednesday and although they started out strong and their end product was nonetheless fun, it plateaued early and didn’t really come close to the other two competitors. France’s soundtrack was mostly modern pop music from the past 5 years and there wasn’t much going on in the way of different. Pop music that all has the same feel is questionable for this type of show. Combining that with narrow variety when it came to the fireworks themselves, from a competition standpoint France was pretty average.

Here is butchnews’ recording of France’s performance available in 1080p. Judge for yourself. Let me know if you think I’m talking smoke, but if you do, please justify.

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