HSBC Celebration of Light

Last Saturday I went down to English Bay to watch (and photograph) the fireworks. This is an annual competition, and it's the biggest of it's kind in the world. Last year's winning competitor was Sweden. This year it is Canada, Sweden, and China that are competing. I haven't actually watched the fireworks directly from the beach in years. There is a tremendous crowd of people who go to this event (about 400,000 or so) and so when it's over, there is a mad rush to get out of town and head home. Anyhow, this year I was determined to brave the crowd and just do it.

I got there at about 5:00pm (the fireworks start at 10:00pm) and I decided to set up all my camera stuff on a big rocky area. I figured most people would choose the prime sandy spots on the beach, and I was right; so I had no one sitting in front of me. The only thing is, I had to sit and wait for 5 hours. Luckily, a friend showed up to keep me company. So here are some of the highlights from that event:

Here was the crowd when I first arrived. Not too crazy yet, and it was a little cool and cloudy as well:



A little while later, it started filling more:



This is the barge the fireworks are deployed from. There are over $2,000,000.00 worth of fireworks on that ship for each show:



A lot of boaters came around to see from the water:







Some people went for a refreshing swim while they were waiting:



The cops were there too; on the beach and in the water. I guess they were making sure people weren't drinking on the beach (that's actually illegal here).







Fireboats where there as well:



It was getting dark, and the crowd was getting very thick now:







So here are a few of the fireworks. I can't show you all the photos, because there are too many, so I'll just post the highlights for now: