Summer fireworks festival to light up Vancouver once again

Love it or hate it, Vancouver's annual summer fireworks festival has been saved once again, thanks to three new sponsors.

The 2009 HSBC Celebration of Light was officially cancelled on Feb. 4, but organizers confirmed Thursday morning the event will go ahead for four nights in July and August.

The controversial event held on the waters of Vancouver's English Bay has struggled with funding and drunken revellers for years. Despite being cancelled or nearly cancelledmore than once, organizers have always managed to find a way to keep it alive.

"Every year our funding comes down to the wire, and this year we truly thought it was over," said Vancouver Fireworks Festival Society Chair Brent MacGregor. "But thanks to the ongoing support of the city, our previously existing sponsors, whose solid backing we have, and [three] new enthusiastic sponsors, the event is go for 2009."

The 2009 event will take place July 22, 25 and 29 and Aug. 1 starting at 10 p.m. PT. The new sponsors joining the funding team behindthe estimated $4 million budget include a Vancouver casino, a restaurant chain and an FM radio station.

Festival began almost 2 decades ago

Every summer for the past 18 years, the event has drawn tens of thousands of spectators to Vancouver's downtown West End and Kitsilano neighbourhoods to watch the pyrotechnics launched from barges on English Bay.

The event began as the Benson and Hedges Symphony of Firein July, 1990. When that sponsorship ended in 2001, the City of Vancouver and various other sponsors took over.

With approximately 350,000 to 400,000 spectators per night, for each of the four nights of the show, the event had an estimated economic impact of over $37 million annually in direct visitor spending.

However, unruly revellers and large crowds drove up policing costs, while the trash and noiseprompted many complaints from local residents.