Omagari Fireworks

Omagari is a competition before it is a show, and that changes how you watch it. Twenty-eight or so pyrotechnicians each submit a set piece they have designed themselves, judged on the shell's symmetry, the colour changes and how cleanly it dies. Between the competition rounds the crowd is quiet in a way that other fireworks nights are not, because everyone is looking for the same faults the judges are. It also runs a daytime round, which almost nowhere else does: shells that burst into coloured smoke against the sky rather than light. It is a strange thing to see once, and the reason to arrive in the afternoon rather than the evening.