The Celebration of Light returns to Vancouver’s English Bay this summer with Canadian teams from Yukon, Nova Scotia, and Quebec set to light up the sky.
The stage is out on the waters of English Bay. With the returning champions, Yukon’s Team Midnight Sun, set to kick off the festival Saturday evening, pyrotechnicians and crew workers are busy preparing for the massive fireworks displays that will light up the skies of Vancouver’s West End.
“It’s been very challenging this week, and my team started on Monday getting everything ready,” said Kelly Guille, Team Midnight Sun’s lead pyrotechnician.
“Each team has three days to put everything in, and this is day two (of preparation) for Yukon.”
Each of the 20,000 fireworks is electronically programmed, with one crew member controlling the entire operation.
Warren Zakus and Kira Adams — a husband-and-wife pyrotechnics team — say their display is dubbed “20,000 Leagues under English Bay,” inspired by the classic movie. It includes tributes to Canadian artists and the 2010 Olympics.
The pair started doing pyrotechnics for fun.
“It takes an enormous amount of time to set this up, and it doesn’t last very long,” Zakus said.
“That’s the funny part that we keep talking about.”
The annual Celebration of Light is one of the city’s biggest events every year. This is the first time in the festival’s history that all three shows will feature Canadian teams.
Attendees are encouraged to walk or take public transit as virtually the entire West End will be closed off west of Burrard Street starting at 5 p.m. Saturday. There will be concrete barriers set up by police along Pacific, Davie, Robson, and Denman streets, with the first show kicking off at 10:15 p.m.
