Celebration of Light: Team Japan wows crowd

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The Celebration of Light took over the sky and much of the traffic around the West End this Saturday, as the first night kicked off in Vancouver.

Hundreds of thousands of people crowded the shores of Kitsilano and English Bay to watch Team Japan’s showcase.

“We’re estimating the crowd at approximately 250,000 people down here at English Bay,” says Constable Jason Doucette with the VPD.

Police patroled the area to ensure things stayed orderly.

“We had a very well behaved crowed with no serious incidents reported at all,” says Doucette.

He adds there were a few issues involving liquor and smoking, but those were resolved quickly.

“We had about 82 liquor pour outs,” he explains. “We wrote four tickets for drinking in public –those are about $250 or $230 each. We wrote another one for smoking.”

Doucette says with a large event like this it could have been a lot worse, and he’s glad the fireworks are being treated like a family event.

“Every year this seems to work out better for all of us. We have a look at what we’ve done in the past to prepare, and then after we execute those plans, (we look at) what we could do better. We’re always looking to improve.”

Team UK is up next. They take to the skies on Wednesday.

Canada will finish off the festival, with the final show set for Saturday.

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