Volunteer-based Yukon team behind Canada night at Celebration of Light

Volunteer-based Yukon pyro team behind Canada night at Honda Celebration of Light

Honda Celebration of Light fireworks barge. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

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The second night of the 2022 Honda Celebration of Light fireworks competition will be delivered by a contingent representing Team Canada🇨🇦.

And this is a very unique team — a volunteer-based group of pyrotechnics experts, based in the Yukon.

“It started out with some friends many years ago doing some backyard fireworks, and then we decided we wanted to do a bit more than that,” Kiara Adams and Warren Zakus with Midnight Sun Fireworks, who are also a couple, told Daily Hive.

“A proper pyrotechnics course became available in the Yukon, and a few of us took it.”

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This led to Midnight Sun Fireworks delivering its first pyromusical in 2014, designing the fireworks shows of Whitehorse’s largest public celebrations.

“We had a really good time putting our first show together, and our community just loved it. They had never seen anything like it in our area, and it just kept going from there,” said Zakus.

Just three years later, in 2017, the team won the championship title of the Fête du Lac des Nations — a major fireworks competition in Sherbrooke, Quebec.

Midnight Sun Fireworks’ show on Wednesday, July 27, 2022, will be its biggest show yet.

Zakus says they have a team of six members from the Yukon working on their Honda Celebration of Light performance, in addition to the local supporting pyrotechnics staff of the festival organizers.

When asked what kind of theme and music can be expected for the pyromusical, Adams held back on the details to keep an element of surprise, but she hinted that there will be classic rock music and “a little bit of pirates.”

“We are super excited to be here and representing Canada. We are super passionate about what we do,” added Zakus. “We put a lot of work and effort into really bringing the music for a new experience for all the neat classic rock songs that everyone loves, using the sky as our canvas.”

celebration of light 2022 japan mark teasdale

Team Japan’s show during the 2022 Honda Celebration of Light. (Mark Teasdale/@
MarksGonePublic/Twitter/submitted)

Wednesday’s Team Canada🇨🇦 show by Midnight Sun Fireworks kicks off over the night sky of English Bay at 10 pm.

All three fireworks shows are preceded by the Red Bull Air Show at 7:40 pm. For the Team Canada🇨🇦 night, there will be a special additional air show featuring the Canadian Forces Snowbirds at 6 pm, presented by Concord Pacific.

The 30th anniversary of the Honda Celebration of Light, the first major public fireworks event in Vancouver since 2019, kicked off last Saturday with Team Japan🇯🇵. The festival will conclude this coming Saturday, July 30 with a performance by Team Spain🇪🇸.

Daily Hive is a Proud Media Partner of the 2022 Honda Celebration of Light

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