Lifestyle See and do

Fireworks light up Macau

Written by Yuci Tai

The 26th Macau International Fireworks Display Contest is currently being held at the seafront of Macau Tower between 8 September and 1 October.

The fireworks industry used to be one of the three staple industries of the territory, influenced by Portugal’s long history of pyrotechnics. To celebrate this “colorful” history and cultural inheritance, Macau staged the inaugural annual “Macau International Fireworks Display Contest” in the 1980s to demonstrate the uniqueness of the territory.

Having grown bigger and better each year since, MGTO has requested this year’s teams choreograph their fireworks displays to both music and laser light projections so as to set off their theme and enhance the audience’s experience. Spectators can watch the live broadcast of the fireworks shows with background music on TDM – Macau Chinese TV Channel and TDM – Radio Macau’s Chinese Channel (FM 100.7) each evening.

Famous pyrotechnic companies from around the world travel to Macau to take part in the Macau International Fireworks Display Contest and the line-up is as strong as ever this year. The 10 teams come from Chinese Taiwan, China, Korea, Poland, Croatia, Portugal, Australia, France, Italy and Spain (according to the order in the contest program). Croatia and Poland are two countries joining the contest for the first time, while new pyrotechnics companies from Spain and Australia will make their debut in Macau.

MGTO and the General Union of Neighbors Association of Macau are joining hands again to present the Fireworks Carnival 2014 at the open area next to Macau Tower during the fireworks evenings. The carnival runs from 17:00 to 23:00 with stage shows and food stalls.

Make sure you check out the Chinese team’s display at 21:00 this Saturday 13 September. The 20 September features Korea, Poland and Croatia; the 27 September has Portugal, Australia and France; and the competition culminates on 1 October with Italy and Spain.