THE 4th Shanghai International Music and Fireworks Festival will light up the sky on September 30 at Century Park, to launch the week-long National Day Holiday.

　　The Fireworks Festival has become an important part of the Shanghai Tourism Festival and in each of the past three years, it has attracted audiences of more than 2 million Shanghainese and visitors.

　　The event is a spectacular combination of fireworks exploding in harmony with a musical accompaniment.

　　This year, artists from Sweden, Italy and Germany will be putting on three shows with the fireworks.

　　The Italian Show is first off the mark on September 30, presented by the Ipon Company and the Pagano family which has more than 100 years experience in pyrotechnics.

　　The family's association with fireworks goes back three generations and they have been invited to present the fireworks show when the Athens Olympic Games opens next year.

　　The second show on October 3 will be put on by the Swedish Pyroproffs Company, which has performed at Nobel Prize Awards Ceremonies and the Norway Winter Olympics. The Swedish theme will be a "colour rhythm" and is designed to take the audience on a romantic tour as the fireworks explode.

　　The German display on October 6 will close the Tourism Festival and National Day holiday week.

　　On each of the fireworks nights, Chinese and Japanese artists will join hands for a show entitled "Oriental Dream". Their performances will be in marked contrast to the high-tech pyrotechnics of the European fireworks displays with their laser shows and array of 12 long-distance lights which can send light beams more than a kilometre /into/ the night sky.

　　Century Park will also be the focus of various performances in the daytime during the National Day Holiday and visitors will be able to enjoy other Euro-American-Chinese shows.

　　The performances will run from 9:30am to 5:30pm every day. In one show, two American and five Chinese artists will combine to perform puppet shows and acrobatics at Music Fountain Square near the No. 2 Entrance to the park. Their shows will be followed by basketball stunt performances.

　　Hawaiian dancing and fashion shows will be held on the Grand Lawn which is also the locale for spectacular aerial stunts.

　　The Central Stage near the park's No. 1 Entrance will be the venue for shows by singers and musicians.