L'International Des Feux Loto-Québec

"You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality." - Walt Disney

Bonjour madames et monsieurs! Ça va bien? Salut, mes amis montréalais!

SO. A whole lot has happened this week, huh? A 72 hour cease fire that didn't last more than 90 minutes, a supposedly democratic government supporting and financing weapons and ports for certain socialist parties and taking part in conflicts it has nothing to do with... Yes, that was a very straight forward indirect line to my dear friends over at PT.

Okay, okay, enough of that. Now back to business. For those of you who don't know, I am currently living in Montreal. As a part of the summer festivals, every saturday and every other wednesday in July there is a firework show, each one themed differently, displayed city-wide. It's really quite beautiful.

Picture taken by me of the Pink Floyd show last night

The spectacle, called L'International Des Feux Loto-Québec, started in 1985, at La Ronde, the biggest amusement park in Quebec. In the beginning, there were two sorts of spectacle - the ones synched to music and the ones not synched to anything. Today prevails the musical ones, for obvious reasons. The city has always been known for its festivals and it is very high regarded for this specific one. The festival presents a competition for all of the countries taking part in it. England, China, Spain and the US have already been part of it. This year, it was between Canada, France and Australia. Yesterday was the last show and the announced victor was.................

wait for it...

Montreal!!!

Turns out they have won last year's too and seem to be geting better (and more colorful).

The themes of the spectacles are varied. This year, for instance, there was Terror Night (with Michael Jackson music), Legends of Fire, homage to liberty and Nelson Mandela, and the opening show, The Dream Catcher. Throughout the shows, the music told the story of the so proposed theme beautifully. The last one, which was the only I attended to, was a homage to Pink Floyd. It was really something to see. My favourite Pink Floyd song, Another Brick on the Wall, was included on the show, and that was the part that I liked the most. It was all nicely synchronized in a way that it told a story (not this story, though). My sincere congratulations to who designs the shows because dude, you're awesome.

Also, you could hear the music at the 105.7 radio station, but in many points across town it was playing aloud. It was a really awesome experience, specially because of the amount of tourists who are currently here for all the festivals (might I add, the Arctic Monkeys are playing today... But needless to say, the prices are sky high). So there were quebecois walking around with portable chairs, children clapping and screaming in awe - and of course the occasional father disturbing everyone's view with the kid on his shoulders, but what you gonna do - and a hundred different languages around. The whole experience was incredible.

There is a lot of festivals going down this time of year, and I've only been to two of them, this one and Festival du Monde, that had themed shows and food courts from all over the world. A little while ago there was the Festival of Jazz, which I heard was incredible, and now the Just Pour Rire festival that presents comedies new and old for absolutely no charge. And that's just for starters.

SO! I hope y'all enjoyed the post, along with all of the great firework p0rn, and the little bit about the festival culture here. Have you been to one of them? Hit us up! That's what the comments are for!

All pictures by Music Junkie. YEAH, BY ME -so no stealing guys!

"We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control... All in all you're just another brick on the wall." - Pink Floyd

Music Junkie