One of Vancouver’s premier annual events is the Honda Celebration of Light fireworks competition in English Bay in the middle of the summer each year.
In 2024 the fireworks happen on the Saturdays and Wednesday of July 20th, 24th and 27th.
For full details about the event, and for tickets to premium viewing venues at English Bay Beach, visit the Honda Celebration of Light website. To see the fireworks from the water at a nightclub-style venue, consider joining a Vancouver Boat Parties event. Another premium venue to see the show from is at Vanier Park at Bard Fireworks Nights.
For more information about the fireworks in general, continue reading.
Celebration of Light Fireworks Information
Click on any of the following links to jump to specific information, or continue reading to learn everything there is to know!
Celebration of Light | Morton Park Festival Zone | Airshows | Fireworks Concerts | Where to Watch | Celebration of Light Video | About the Competition | Fireworks Judging | Other Information
Honda Celebration of Light Fireworks
The Honda Celebration of Light festival features live music and a world-class fireworks competition with pyrotechnic displays by a different country each night.
In 2024 the fireworks take place on the Saturday, Wednesday and Saturday of July 20th, 24th and 27th. The event is absolutely amazing! Hundreds of thousands of people turn out on each of the three nights. You can watch the pyrotechnic displays for free from the beach and surrounding area, or you can spoil yourself and enjoy them from a number of awesome ticketed venues.
The fireworks blast off at about 10:00 pm each evening. There is also live music and other fun stuff starting in the early afternoon on all three days.
Participating countries in 2023 were Australia, Mexico and The Philippines. This year’s participant countries are to be confirmed. Each year the fireworks take off from the water by English Bay Beach.
For more information and tickets to premium venues visit the Honda Celebration of Light website.
TOP PLACES TO WATCH THE FIREWORKS
Premium venues to watch the fireworks from include Inukshuk Point and the Scotiabank Lounge on the Bathhouse Roof at English Bay Beach. There is also the Concord Pacific Grandstand and Patio. To learn more or to buy tickets for any of these venues, see the Honda Celebration of Light official website.
Another great place to watch the fireworks is from a boat out on the water. To learn about those opportunities, see our articles about Vancouver Boat Parties and Vancouver Cruises.
For details about these and other best places to watch the fireworks from, click Top English Bay Fireworks Venues. Our list is one of Vancouver’s most comprehensive!
Honda Celebration of Light
The Honda Celebration of Light event is amazing! It attracts hundreds of thousands of spectators on each of the three days. Music accompanies the pyrotechnics, and people can tune in from anywhere by listening to CFMI Rock 101 FM radio.
In 2023, the dates and competitors were the following:
- 22nd of July – Howard & Sons Pyrotechnics (from Australia)
- 26th of July – Grupo AVACON (from Mexico)
- 29th of July – Blue Peacock Fireworks (from The Philippines)
Competitors at the 2024 event are to be confirmed. Last year’s winning fireworks company was Blue Peacock Fireworks from The Philippines.
Morton Park Festival Zone
In the lead up to the 10:00 pm fireworks, the Honda Celebration of Light event usually includes lots of great entertainment and family-friendly things to see and do.
In 2023 all of the fun happened at Morton Park, located at 1800 Morton Avenue. It’s the park by the intersection of Beach Avenue, Denman Street and Davie (where the circle of giant smiling character statues are). This is where you’ll find the Morton Park Festival Zone where most of the festival’s pre-fireworks activities take place. There’s entertainment, food trucks, activations and giveaways starting at 2:00 pm each day.
Most of this past year’s performances happened on the second and third days of the festival. On July 26th, Mexican singers, musicians and dancers took the stage throughout the day in celebration of the country’s fireworks display. Similarly, before The Philippines fireworks on July 29th, there was lots of live entertainment to enjoy by Filipino performers.
English Bay Airshows
A tradition at the Celebration of Light event, prior to the fireworks, is the Pete McLeod Airshow which features aerial acrobatics above the waters of English Bay.
It’s usually a single plane that’s fun to watch and visible from Sunset Beach to Second Beach and beyond. The best place to watch from, though, is English Bay Beach as that’s at the centre of the show.
The airshow usually starts shortly before sunset, which itself can be a spectacular event to see. A few years ago the event included an appearance by Canada’s Snowbirds, which was awesome! They were back again in 2022 on Wednesday, July 27th! The airshows with Pete McLeod happened again on each night of the 2023 festival. The Snowbirds, however, did not perform this past year.
Fireworks Concerts
In addition to music broadcast on radio to accompany the fireworks, live bands perform in the afternoons and evenings.
The concerts used to take place at Sunset Beach and English Bay Beach, but then in later years at Stanley Park near Second Beach. In 2022 the entertainment happened at English Bay Beach in and around Morton Park, not at Sunset Beach or Second Beach.
In 2023 the live music stage was also located at Morton Park. Performers included Israel Kadash, Mexican Dance Ensemble, Gelo Granados Band, Estella Banez, Singko Band, and many more.
Where to Watch
The fireworks are still set off from a barge just offshore from English Bay Beach, but they can be seen from miles around. Below are some of the best places to watch them from.
For an even more comprehensive list of best places to watch the fireworks from, click Top Fireworks Venues. For a brief list, see below.
English Bay Beach Views
Arguably the absolute top place to watch the pyrotechnics is from English Bay Beach. That’s where the sandy shoreline and nearby lawns are covered with a couple of hundred thousand spectators on sunny evenings.
At English Bay you can sit on the beach and watch for free, or you can pay to watch from a few exclusive venues. Because of the crowds and added comfort, the premium venues are well worth the investment!
Premium Venues: If you don’t mind spending between around $57 and $230 most years, you can reserve a spot and get special VIP treatment at a few different venues at English Bay Beach. These premium seats are a great way to treat yourself, avoid the main crowds and have comfortable views of the fireworks displays. Enjoying the evening in comfort can be a real treat! For tickets and full details about these venues see the official Honda Celebration of Light website.
From the Water: If you have a boat, you can be like hundreds of other Vancouverites and park your vessel in English Bay and see the fireworks from the water. For some this is even better than watching from the shore, plus you get to avoid the crowds and post-event traffic on the road. Not everyone, though, has access to a boat. To learn about boat party events happening on the fireworks nights see our article about Vancouver Boat Parties.
To learn about the best places to watch the fireworks from at English Bay Beach, see our article about Premium Fireworks Venues.
Other Pyrotechnic Viewing Areas
In addition to the main English Bay Beach venue, the Honda Celebration of Light fireworks can be seen from all around the various shores of English Bay.
Impressive views of both the fireworks and the city are at Second Beach, Kitsilano Beach and Sunset Beach. Vanier Park offers great views as well, especially when the fireworks happened on July 26th in 2023 at the Maritime Museum’s Night at the Speakeasy event. Jericho Beach is a bit far away, but also a nice place to watch from a distance and admire the Vancouver skyline at night.
Another great place to watch the fireworks from is Vanier Park, especially if you attend one of the Bard BBQ Nights when they take place. Bard on the Beach is where Shakespearean productions take place in the summer. On the evenings of July 20th, 24th and 27th, you can attend a play, enjoy a delightful meal and then watch the fireworks. It all makes for an exceptional experience!
For a more complete and detailed list of venues to watch the fireworks from, click Celebration of Light Fireworks Venues.
Honda Celebration of Light Video
Want to see what the Honda Celebration of Light is all about, including its daytime festival activities? Then check out the following video. It shows scenes of the event from July 23rd in 2022, which was the night when Japan lit up the skies with its fireworks displays.
As you’ll see in the video, there is much more than just fireworks at the festival. There is live music, an airshow and a couple of hundred thousand people at English Bay Beach.
About the Fireworks Competition
The Celebration of Light event has been running for close to 30 years. To be exact, in 2020 it was going to celebrate its 30th anniversary. The hope was then to celebrate the anniversary in 2021. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The 30th anniversary was celebrated in 2022 instead.
Every summer, over the course of the three nights of fireworks, as many as 1.3 million or more Vancouverites and folks from out-of-town enjoy the festivities and pyrotechnic displays.
In an average year around 500,000 people turn out to watch the fireworks on each of the two Saturdays. Slightly more attend on the last Saturday of the event than the first because it’s on the BC Day Long Weekend. Close to 400,000 people typically watch on the Wednesday.
With the fireworks competition, three international teams are selected and given a budget by the Celebration of Light’s organizing committee. The competitors then work with that budget, but have the option to spend more of their own money.
The fireworks companies are based in their various respective countries, although most of the actual pyrotechnic devices are manufactured in China.
In a typical night around 6,000 fireworks are used. Sometimes, though, like with the Korean team a few years ago, the displays can involve as many as 8,000 individual fireworks or more.
About the Fireworks Barge
The barge used for the fireworks is owned by Seaspan. It’s used solely for fireworks events, we understand, although not only for just the three Celebration of Light evenings. The barge is also used for Canada Day, plus likely other times when needed in Vancouver.
Setting up for the fireworks usually involves a Canadian team of 10 or so pyrotechnic experts, from both Vancouver and other parts of the country. It also involves around four members of each competitor’s team.
During the actual fireworks event, just four people remain on the barge – two of the Canadians and two members of the international team. They sit behind their computers inside a small building with bulletproof glass.
On board and behind the scenes during the actual fireworks displays, it’s not uncommon for some minor things not to go as expected. Very occasionally a small fire might even break out in places on the barge. For the most part, though, things run pretty smoothly, as evident by the visual success of the shows!
Fireworks Competition Judging
The main purpose of the Celebration of Light event is to “spark togetherness.” It’s also a competition, though, where the winning fireworks company gets valuable bragging rights for being the best.
Each year three different pyrotechnic companies compete, and each evening the respective fireworks competitor is rated by a panel of judges. The criteria for judging are the following (or at least they were a few years ago):
- General Design and Artistry – 30 points
- Synchronization of the Fireworks to their Music – 20 points
- Originality of the Show – 15 points
- Soundtrack Quality – 15 points
- Overall Fireworks Quality – 10 points
- Size of the Pyrotechnic Displays – 10 points
Other Information
To learn more about this spectacular three-day event, check out the official Celebration of Light website.
For a detailed list of top places to watch the fireworks from, click Best Celebration of Light Venues or Premium Venues at English Bay Beach.
To learn more about other activities taking place around the same time, see our July Calendar, August Calendar or article about the BC Day Long Weekend.
For a list of other Lower Mainland fireworks displays at other times of the year, click Metro Vancouver Fireworks Events.
For a list of other major events of all different kinds, check out Vancouver’s Festivals & Events Calendar.
