Saturday’s fireworks evening belongs to Portugal and Australia

The third night of pyrotechnic exhibitions of the Wynn Macau – 18th Macau International Fireworks Display Contest belongs to Portugal and Australia, who had to work under the rain during the last few days to prepare the pyromusical shows for Saturday evening. The fireworks displays at the Macau’s skies start at 9 p.m with the exhibition of the more international Portuguese pyrotechnic company, the Pirotecnia Minhota, which will present a firework show with very modern music, including the Irish rock band U2. “Classical music goes very well with fireworks, but we think that for the audiences is more enjoyable to have more popular music that can make people dance with the fireworks”, points out David Costa, manager of Pirotecnia Minhota, a centenary company founded by his family. Macau already knows the art of Pirotecnia Minhota, who won the third edition of the Macau International Fireworks Display Contest, in 1991, and returned to the contest in 1995 and 2001. On the other hand, the Portuguese company was responsible for the mega pyromusical shows for the opening of the Macau International Airport, in 1995, and the celebrations for the Macau Day at the Expo’98 in Lisbon. The Australians Foti International Fireworks, to whom Pirotecnia Minhota have been meeting in the other international festivals, follows the program of the contest, at 10 p.m. With music from all over the world, the design of the Australian pyrotechnic display had in account the local taste. “The audience here is very different from the one we are used to in Australia and Europe. We will not present a very different show from our style, but we will use more certain kind of effects than others, that we think people here will like more”, tells Australian team leader Tim Gray, whom bicentenary company from Italian origin, has also a fireworks factory in Mainland China. For the third time in Macau, after a participation in the contest in 1999, in recent years Foti International Fireworks has been busier and doing bigger scale displays than ever, since it was picked up to do the opening and closing ceremony pyrotechnic shows of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, year when the company also started being the organizer of the famous fireworks display of the Sidney New Years Eve.