Contest promises a big bang

Teams from the USA, Russia, Japan, Italy and the host will compete in the Da Nang International Fireworks Competition on April 29-30 in Da Nang.
Da Nang People's Committee said the theme and location for the competition would be the Han River Port, with the main stand on Tran Hung Dao Street. Other locations including Bach Dang Street, Tran Hung Dao Street, Han River Bridge, Thuan Phuoc Bridge and tourism boats on the Han River.
Several tourism, culture and sports events will be held before, during and after the competition. They include gastronomy exchanges, artistic lights displays, flower boats parade, street music festival, photo exhibition, folk games and maritime sports.
The competing teams will be Khan Fireworks Centre (Russia), Parente Fireworks (Italy), Marutamaya Ogatsu Fireworks Company (Japan), Melrose Pyrotechnics (USA), and the host team Da Nang-Viet Nam.
This will be the first time that teams from Russia and America take part. Team Italy won the competition last year.
The host team was runner-up at the 2012 Vancouver International Fireworks Competition. In recent years, the team has performed in the Sekong and Champasak provinces in Laos, and at the New Year's Eve celebrations in Da Nang.
The event's organising committee expects to sell 25,000 tickets ranging from VND200,000 to 400,000 (US$9-18).
The annual competition has been held in Da Nang since 2008.