celebration of lights

hello my lovelies (:   last saturday was the last fireworks show of the summer (and possibly for quite a few summers to follow), every year since 1990 the Celebration of Lights (originally called the Symphony of Fire) is presented by HSBC and a whole bunch of other sponsors in front of first beach English bay, this summer there were four events (USA, Mexico, Spain and China) but there used to be many more running through the entire summer (there was issues with funding, this year it cost $1.4 million for just 4 shows! someone donated the money). Its an international fireworks competition, I don't know if it was because of the funding problems but I found it pretty standard, really great and all but "best in the world" is stretching it but the shows are said to be crafted by the top firework designers in the world and it's definitely one of the most exciting events of the summer. 





these were my favourite!

but backing up, we got to the beach around 6pm, the fireworks start at 10 but the beach fills up so a lot of people come early to reserve spots. it really wasn't that crowded though, i heard before that some come at noon but when we got there i found out that there was plenty of space and really you didn't need to worry unless you came after 9:30. =_= oh and there were people watching in boats! mad jealous of them.


ok you can't tell from this photo but there were still lots of empty spots!


i never before realized how beautiful english bay is, it looks like a scene taken out from a traditional asian drama. the mountains came as a surprise for me! its incredible!






gorgeous sunset






glittering lake, nature is magical and nothing is more enchanting. people are always trying to create attractive places but nature is always more beautiful and absolutely timeless. i don't get the fun of dancing at loud clubs, i'd prefer a walk at the beach but i guess i'm just not that sort of person.

the beach a earlier around 7

sun shining, clouds scattered across the sky, little did we know an hour later we heard a crack of thunder and then
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.
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it rains for the first time all summer. wait no, it pours. trust vancouver to come up with this sort of thing =_=

the guys in front of us were soaked! we hid underneath our waterproof mat and stayed dry (yay for extra bankets!)

i quickly snapped pictures of people hurrying to get undercover. priceless!

lol at the little girl hiding underneath the chair, now that is smart thinking ;)

luckily this was the rain that gets it all out and stops as suddenly as it starts versus the rain that tinkles for hours and just wont get it over with. about 20 minutes later it stopped and the fact that it rained just added to the excitement of the night. we got popcorn, LOL.

i'm kind of bummed there wasn't any lightning :/ lightning + firework show = super awesome

it continued to rain over another area though, i'm don't know where this was but we could see the rain falling! it was like "oh so that's what it looks like when it rains from the surrounding view."

see the fog over the island? that's the rain coming down on it!

ok onto the actual fireworks. there was a speach before the show took off, spain won the competition, blah blah blah about the sponsors, blah blah blah pickup your garbage, get home safely, and then everyone sung our national anthem (at different speeds, while half of the beach was three quarters way through the other end was clapping and cheering). and then the countdown started... and then the weird chinese music (that, ahem, i should appreciate) came in... and then finally











props to the guy in the ocean, water must have been ice cold! the clouds added nicely to the effect.













and the finale...






explodes in the sky, spectacular!

i brought my tripod with me and taped the full show (the photos are taken from the video), tried uploading it several times but i haven't been able to get it up due to technical complications (so frustrating!), new found respect for youtube video makers, i never knew how difficult it was to get a video up! 1. it takes forever to upload. 2. if your internet has a twitch the whole thing stops and you have restart uploading from the beginning. grumble grumble.


i really hope that they're able to bring it back next year, this was my first time attending and it much more than i expected. i know a lot of money goes into it but in my eyes its worth it. made me wish i had a boyfriend, it's such a romantic scene, on the beach, watching fireworks, listening to strange foreign music, couldn't help thinking if a boyfriend would propose to his girlfriend here, assuming she could hear him. plus once it goes dark, you stop noticing the other people.

i really loved it (:

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