True to its season, May is indeed marred with rainy afternoons. Heavy rains that is. And the second day of world pyro olympics is no exception. This time, the rain poured relentlessly right when the show is about to begin. To my surprise, the rain did not keep Canadian pyrotechnicians (Pyro Studios) from painting the sky with flowers, peonies, brocades, palm trees, flower bouquets, spirals, bees and all. (I’d bet you’ve never recognized those…I hardly did myself, I was just guessing…hehehe)

The rain went on pouring like crazy and I thought the contender will just have to fire what’s left dry in the barge. But the loud bangs went on harmoniously one after the other. I’d guess not too many photo pros and amateurs were able to get vantage view of the show. So why waste my frames if I can film the show. So I decided to get videos instead. CA’s entry lasted for around 16 minutes with artistic 2-time finale. I wish it was a bit longer as last year’s WPO but that duration alone has left me jaw-dropped as usual. Canada’s entry could make good photo frames I guess, but I did not have the choice but to opt for video.

I reviewed the video back home and I would say this is the most photogenic display I’ve seen in this event. I took several snapshots but the long exposure stills will be incomparable. Pyro Studios simply know how to put explosions one on top of the other just like how you arrange flowers in a cascading manner. Plus it’s raining so it’s awesome overall. A perfect ten from me.

The rain calmed down thereafter and so did the waves of Manila Bay. Finally, I can position myself at the edge of the ledge. I get a good reflection of lights on the stinking waters (unfortunately) but I hoped the show will just be as perfect that people won’t mind the stench.

Fêtes et feux of France followed before 9:00 pm. I learned from WPO’s website that this société arrived in Manila with an impressive porfolio tagged along! Indeed it painted the sky the French way. I have seen a lot of brocades and willow trees and the usual chrysanthemums. Although some dark smokes obscured my S2-IS’ view throughout the show, it did pretty well on the contents category. It capped off the show with a beautiful forest of willow tree with lots of glitters in them, whatever you call those blinking explosive stars =).

Unfortunately, the 5-day and 5-week event has been squeezed one day less. I noticed that Australia and Korea are now out of the list - for some reasons I don’t know. I was hoping to see some nautical shells from them, but well….Now I wonder what will La Mancha do with the tickets sold out for May 31.

Although still wondering why the schedule got postponed to May, and why AU and KR backed out, I still am thankful there’s a show like this in Manila Bay. Over time, the interest on fire technologies have waned on me, but it has started to grow inside me again. Without me knowing it, the creativity of art-endowed humans in turning the sky into a black canvass - creating multitudes of colorful figures therein will never cease to amaze the little boy in me.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 12:45 am and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.