Lights Of Bago City
Musical-fireworks a promising
tourist attraction in Bago City
SOME 10,000 Bagoeños flocked to Manuel Y. Torres Sports Center
last January 1 2009, 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 of Bago City
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
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