It's taken a while, but I'm finally now caught up on old posts, and have gotten close to back to current with everything that's going on at the moment.
Saturday marked the start of the Celebration of Light, Vancouver's annual summer fireworks display. This year there were three counties - the USA, France and Japan - that would put on a show on each of three nights. The first was the US, and as it happened, their night coincided with one of my favourite bands, 54-40, playing a pre-fireworks show at the beach. It doesn't get much better than that as a combo.
The 54-40 show started at 8:30 p.m., so late evening we made our way down to the beach. As you might expect, these events draw huge crowds, and the beach was packed. We managed to find a spot on the sand, not far from the stage, and settled in to watch the earlier act that was just wrapping up.
There was a big crowd at the beach for fireworks.
Not long after we got settled in, 54-40 came on stage and did a great show. They played one new song, as well as a good number of their hits. Sadly, the crowd was a bit young and didn't really know the band that well, so it wasn't as energetic as it could have been. Still, we enjoyed ourselves and the amazing summer evening.
Neil rocking out as the sun sets over English Bay.
In one of the stranger concert incidents, someone piloted a drone (I'm assuming with a camera on it) right up in front of the band. Understandably, they weren't quite sure what to make of it.
After the concert ended, we still had a bit of time before the sunset, and fireworks could start. The fireboats out on the water put on a bit of a show for the crowd.
Fireboats putting on a bit of a display.
We even had a big helicopter do a close fly-by.
At about 9:45 we got the warning shot from the fireworks barge, then promptly at 10:00, the show started. We were quite close, and it was a great show. You could feel some of the bigger ones when they went off, and for 25 minutes it was a non-stop barrage of explosions. Lots of fun!
The warning shot, 15 minutes before the fireworks started. It was still pretty light out, as the sun set behind the mountains.
A colourful burst over the water.
A huge collection of fireworks at all levels.
An interesting collection of shapes and colours.
A couple of huge bursts
Multiple bursts in a very intensive part of the show.
An interesting collection of colour and bursts in all directions.
A we got closer to the end, the fireworks got bigger and brighter.
Just before the grand finale.