The opening ceremony

VietNamNet Bridge – The first international firework competition in Vietnam opened last night, March 27, on the bank of the Han River in the central city of Da Nang, attracting tens of thousands of visitors.

The contest opened with firework shows by Vietnam and Hong Kong teams. Different from normal firework performances, the contest brought the audience dances of lights.

Tens of thousands of Vietnamese and foreign visitors gathered very early on Bach Dang, Tran Hung Dao roads and Han River Bridge to wait for the competition.

As thousands of visitors have come to the city, all hotels are full. Especially, all seats on the roofs of high-rise buildings in the city are fully booked. Many hotels sold 300-600 tickets worth VND30,000 to VND100,000/ticket. Hoang Anh Plaza and Daesco sold out all tickets for the opening night and they have only several tens of tickets left for March 28 night. Green Plaza Hotel, located in a very favourable position for watching fireworks, sold out all of its tickets for both March 27, 28 nights several days ago.

Before firework performances, the opening ceremony took place on the major stage. After that many famous singers performed popular songs. Tens of lanterns and flower rafts were released on the Han River along with a parade of 33 flower boats of Son Tra district fishermen. At the same time, special lighting equipment of Singapore’s Glorious Company lighted up the Han River and Han River Bridge, making the river more fanciful than ever.

At 9pm, Da Nang’s sky was illuminated by splendid fireworks. On the jury, besides leaders of Da Nang city, are many famous people, including musician Phan Huynh Dieu, Editor in chief of Thanh Nien Newspaper Nguyen Cong Khe, Vice Head of the Photography and Exhibition Agency Vi Kien Thanh, UNESCO’s Cultural Ambassador to Vietnam Pham Sanh Chau, the South Korean Ambassador to Vietnam, and the Russian Consul General in Da Nang.

The host team, Vietnam, kicked off the contest with its show entitled “Tien Sa Dance”, which tells legends about fairies on Da Nang beach, expresses aspirations for love and happiness through images of “hearts”, “smiles”, and “butterflies”. The second show was “Da Nang’s new day” and the third show was “Going to the land of festivals”.

Pyromagic Production team from Hong Kong made a strong impression on viewers. Its show began with a message about the 2008 Beijing Olympics with images of “2008” and “888” and “Olympic circles”, etc. After that the team performed “Tien Sa Love Story”, “Night song on fishing boat”, “Silk Road”, “Shangri-La” “Harry Porter’s miraculous world”, “Heaven City”, and “A new border 2008”.

Joe Ghazzal, General Director of the contest, Director of Malaysia’s Global 2000 company, said: “Vietnamese and Da Nang people are so warm. They have created a real effervescent atmosphere for the contest. I’ve organised many firework festivals but I’ve never seen any place that is as beautiful as the Han River and people as warm as here. I believe that the event will be very successful thanks to the deep concern from the people to officials of the highest level,”

Da Nang before the firework contest:

Thousands of people on the Han River Bridge	A group of foreign visitors on the Han River Bridge
A family is waiting for firework shows	A high-rise building is an ideal place for watching fireworks
The Han River Bridge at night	Flower boats on Han River
The Jury of firework contest

Firework performance by Vietnam team

Firework show by Hong Kong team

Hai Chau