Monday, January 05, 2009 Musical-fireworks a promising tourist attraction in Bago
SOME 10,000 Bagoeños flocked to Manuel Y. Torres Sports Center last January 1 to witness a world-class display of beautiful and multi-colored fireworks.
The enchanting music plus vivid colors of the 15-minute fireworks display was part of the "Lights of Bago," a new year's gift of Mayor Ramon Torres to his constituents and fellow Negrenses.
The mayor said the display will become grander as the City Government promises to improve it, considering that it could be another attraction in the province of Negros Occidental.
"Lights of Bago" is a musically choreographed fireworks show, displayed to the rhythm of classical crossover soprano singer Sarah Brightman, composer George Frideric Handel and eloy, a German Hard Rock Band.
Raymond Stoffel, a retired international corporate lawyer from Luxembourg who is married to a Bagoeña, brought the idea of the musical fireworks show to the city and through him, the Luxembourg National proposed to jointly hold the program with Bago City officials.
The City Government welcomed the initiative and committed financial and logistical support to the program and slated to showcase it annually.
"It's just bringing the joy and the culture of my country to my wife's homeland...and the idea of sharing and tying up for brotherhood," said Stoffel.
The musical fireworks show was a product of an eight-month preparation initiated by Stoffel with the Peacock fireworks, a company in Bacolod City which imported specified pyrotechnical materials from Singapore and China. The Luxembourg, on the other hand, studied the musical set up and combination of lights and sounds together during the past months.
It was indeed a celebration of life for the Bagoeños and for the city of Bago as they ushered in together the Year of the Ox with colors, lights and rhythm. (George dela Cruz)
