Vancouver’s annual fireworks festival is hosting an all-Canadian line-up for 2025. Normally, the Honda Celebration of Light organizers extend invitations to international participants for its three-evening explosive extravaganza.

Building upon a surge of national pride, organizers have this year selected teams from the Yukon, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. First to start, representing the Yukon, is Midnight Sun Fireworks, on Saturday, July 19^th; followed by Quebec’s Royal Pyrotechnie on Wednesday, July 23^rd; and closed out by Fireworks FX from Nova Scotia on Saturday, July 26^th.

Billed as the “longest running off-shore fireworks festival in the world”, the Honda Celebration of Light is more than just the namesake pyrotechnical performance in the late evening. On show days, live music, food trucks and family-friendly entertainment jazz up English Bay and Sunset Beach in Vancouver’s West End. Two flyovers by the Royal Canadian Air Force 431 Air Demonstration Squadron (better known as the Snowbirds) are scheduled for Saturday, July 19^th and Wednesday, July 23^rd.

Each fireworks show runs for 25 minutes, starting promptly at 10:15 pm PDT. While it is free to sit on the beach and seawall, a number of open air lounges and grand stand-style seating require pre-paid tickets which are available through the festival’s website. Music from each show is simulcast on local radio station Rock 101 (CFMI 101.1 FM). Expect heavy crowds, as it is strongly recommended to take public transit before and after the show; private vehicle parking is restricted to local residents of the West End and Kitsilano.

 

Did you find a typographical or factual error in this article? Please let us know!