With the Shanghai International Music Fireworks Festival opening tonight, organizers of the annual event pledged yesterday the show will feature exquisite and innovative designs.

The festival includes three shows, tonight and on October 3 and 6, at Century Park in Pudong, each of which will include a strong exotic European flavor.

"So far, the 12,000 tickets for each show have almost been sold out," said Sun Xiaoyun of Century Park.

"As our park successfully hosted the fireworks performance for the past three years, many visitors have already expressed their high expectations for this year's event."

The three shows will be directed by renowned pyrotechnic designers from Italy, Sweden and Germany.

Tonight's Italian show called "Life is beautiful" was designed by Benito Pagano of IPON, a noted Italian fireworks company with nearly 150 years of history. Pagano said that he plans to lead the audience into a romantic, artistic world.

With the golden sparkle "rain" slowly floating down above the park's Jingtian Lake, the show will reach its climax and create a heated ambience in celebration of China's National Day, he explained. Pagano has been selected as the fireworks designer for the 2004 Olympic Games.

The theme of the Swedish show on October 3 will be "All colors of Music."

"The highlight of our show is the perfect combination of music and fireworks," said Rainer Haag, chief designer from Pyroteknik, a Swedish company that has participated in many big events such as the 90th Anniversary for the Nobel Foundation in 1991.

(eastday.com September 30, 2003)