The Italian team Scarpato Pirotecnica will open the International Fireworks Competition.

To kick off the season, a touch of the Venice Carnival: Magnificent stilt walkers accompany guests into the Grand Garden with grandeur and enthusiasm. There, they are greeted by charming gigolos eager to win the ladies’ hearts. Performing at the Garden Theater is Brazzo Brazzone—the world’s only Italo-World-Groove brass band. Fireworks fans can experience more of the famous “La Dolce Vita” on the rehearsal stage: a musical performance like a dazzling journey featuring Ilaria Graziano’s hypnotic voice and Francesco Forni’s mesmerizing guitar sound.

At 10:00 p.m., the Italian team will kick off the 2018 season with their choreography set to this year’s approximately 4-minute compulsory piece: an excerpt from “Danzón No. 2” by Arturo Márquez. Scarpato Pirotecnica began planning today’s fireworks display over a year ago and started producing the individual (pyrotechnic) elements just under two months ago.

“L’Italia Canta – Italy Sings” – that is the evocative name of the first show in the 2018 International Fireworks Competition! Antonio Scarpato promises visitors a special journey through the world of Italian music, with a show whose symmetry will be as precise as the Baroque elements of the Great Garden itself.

The Team: Scarpato Pirotecnica
On opening night, the screen above the Herrenhausen Gardens will be illuminated by the Italian team from Scarpato Pirotecnica, a company founded in 1784. In Rimini, where the company is headquartered today, Antonio Scarpato—the sixth generation to carry on the family tradition—continues to uphold the company’s values of success, quality, artistry, innovation, and respect to this day. The team demonstrates its expertise annually at numerous international competitions. They have also staged extraordinary and significant shows with great success, such as the “Pink Night” in 2011, during which seven fireworks displays were set off in sync along a 15-kilometer stretch of the Italian coast.

© Christoph Maier / Pyrophotos.com

Tickets and Experience
Packages: Tickets for the International Fireworks Competition are available in the online shop at www.hannover.de/onlineshop, where they can also be printed directly as e-tickets. Adults pay €21, seniors €18, and children 5 and under get in free. Physical tickets can be purchased at the Tourist Information office at Ernst-August-Platz 8, as well as at all known ticket outlets. Gift idea: The family ticket for two adults and two children (€54), available at the Tourist Information office at Ernst-August-Platz 8.

Ticket hotline: 0511 / 12345-123.

For anyone who wants to combine a visit to the International Fireworks Competition with an overnight stay in Hanover—or who would like to give the gift of a taste of the fireworks competition—HMTG has put together the “Hanover Explosive” experience package: www.hannover.de/explosiv.

For more information on tickets and experience packages, visit: www.hannover.de/feuerwerk.

Images for editorial use and other press materials are available at www.hannover.de/feuerwerk-presse.

An overview of the 2018 fireworks displays:
Admission to the Great Garden begins at 6:00 p.m.

June 9 10:30 p.m. Norway, North Star Fireworks
August 18 10:00 p.m. Romania, Pyro Events Team
September 1 9:30 p.m. Portugal, Macedos Pirotecnia
September 15 9:00 p.m. New Zealand, Firework Professionals