Four new teams for int’l fireworks contest
The 29th Macau International Fireworks Display Contest will welcome four new teams from Australia, France, Philippines and China that will make their debut in the territory. From September 23, the event will line up 10 international teams who will showcase their firework displays orchestrated to music and laser effects over the following five weekends.
The public will see the fireworks above the water-side area in front of the Macau Tower on September 2, 9, 16 and 23, and October 1.
In a press conference held last week, Macau Government Tourism Office’s (MGTO) director, Helena de Senna Fernandes, revealed that the budget was reduced to roughly MOP25 million this year, down by 10 percent compared to last year’s edition.
The director said that this year’s transportation tender contributed to the budget’s decrease.
“Last year, it was about MOP27.6 million. […] We had a major reduction as earlier we opened a tender for transportation [so] after [calculations], it has been cheaper than expected,” she said.
According to Fernandes, transportation of the fireworks constitutes a large proportion of the contest’s budget.
The contest is also introducing four new companies that will compete in Macau, namely the Cardile International Fireworks Pty Ltd from Australia, Alpha Pyrotechnie from France, Philippines’ Dragon Fireworks Inc and Liuyang New Year Fireworks Trading Co. from China.
The other six teams include FIREevent – Die Feuerwerker from Austria, MLE Pyrotechnics Limited from the United Kingdom, Marutamaya Ogatsu Fireworks from Japan and Germany’s Potsdamer Feuerwerk.
Panzera S.A.S from Italy and Grupo Luso Pirotecnia from Portugal, and they had previously participated in past editions of the contest in Macau.
Meanwhile, the MGTO director stressed that the bureau is doing its best to bring the fireworks to the venue at its designated time without any delay.
Towards the end of 2016, the bureau announced that the New Year fireworks show was cancelled due to the “impossibility of the pyrotechnic material to be transported to Macau within the scheduled date.”
“We would try our best to avoid this issue. However, different kinds of problems may occur. For example, with transportation, we may have problems with the weather,” Senna Fernandes told the press.
“I cannot guarantee 100 percent that we can avoid [such] problems but we will try our best so that for those five nights, we will have the team arrive as scheduled,” the director stated.
