International Fireworks Championship, Michigan 2024

[FinnAmerican]

The International Fireworks Championship will be held for the 2nd year here in my neck of the woods., Michigan.

This explosive event will light up the Northern Michigan sky this summer on Sept. 6 and 7 at Turtle Creek Stadium in Traverse City. In its second year, there will be six shows - two more than 2023 - and a second night of entertainment.

Modeled after similar competitions held in Europe, Canada and Mexico, the event includes world-class fireworks displays with musical accompaniment presented by teams from all over the world. Each team will be formally judged but the spectators have the final say on the winner through online voting.

This year’s event will feature some of the top teams in the world, including the team that presents the New Year’s Eve show in Sydney, Australia. This year’s teams are from Australia, the United Kingdom, India, the Philippines, Finland, and the United States.

Only a handful of fireworks competitions are held in the U.S., with the closest being staged in Missouri.

[displayfireworks1]

Curious who the sponsor is for the event? Also, would love to see the rules the crews have to follow., particularly the rules pertains to using salutes ( don't say airburst) . Back in 1979 I think Grucci won that championship just blasting off tons of salutes at the finale in Monte Carlo. They emptied out the casinos it was so loud. LOL . I looked at the shot site. Too many places to watch for free, unless its some sort of close proximity event.

[KELLFIRE mike]

This does look interesting! It has to be mainly close proximity items

[Scotty Rockets]

I heard about this event last year. The location it’s held is really odd and secondly both the sponsors and the host are very hush hush to whom they are.

[KELLFIRE mike]

I thought all the sponsors were on the website? There seems to be a lot of space behind the stadium.

[displayfireworks1]

If this main sponsor was a puzzle I had to solve. I would ask, are these companies from outside of United State bringing their own fireworks or just their own chorography skills. Who is paying the hotel bills and plane tickets to bring them in? What large display companies are in this geographic location? Is the APA promoting this event? If these companies are bringing their own product, who has magazine capacity in that location? I am sure we can think of more of those types of questions.
Year back Pyrotecnico was on to something when they had Pyrofest every year. When they moved to bring it to an International level event they failed and it ended. If whoever this is can keep this going at a true international level and keep it profitable I wish them the best.
Having help promote a couple of these events in the past. I am amazed at lengths potential average attendees go through to avoid paying a $20.00 ticket. They will buy the parking and not the ticket and just tailgate. They will park on the side of the road, hike through the woods, and the list of strategies goes on and on. If someone can pull this off at international profitable level I will be impressed.

[BMoore]

They use to do one of these in the Cincinnati area and this seems to be the same format. The way it worked is that the event promoters hired one display company just like a typical fireworks show. The display company supplied all the equipment and product. The international teams were basically signed on as employee possessors to set up their mini-displays. So, in effect, it's really a choreography competition. I'm not sure whether the event sponsors paid the travel expenses or if the teams handled that themselves for the privilege of getting to participate. It always seemed to me like the quantity and types of product was more or less equal among the teams. Definitely no salute heavy shows and I seem to recall one of the winners not using a single salute in their entire performance. It was a pretty neat event, but it only lasted a few years so that might tell you something about the finances.