Please sign in to post.

Complicated light shows / projections are the latest trend. Enjoying them?

They started becoming more common the last few years, but there now seems to be an explosion of light shows that involve projecting high-tech artsy video onto the sides of historic buildings throughout Europe.

This past week the 150th anniversary of Gregor Mendel was celebrated in Brno with a coordinated orchestral performance of a new piece during an animated projection on the walls of the university (formerly a monastery) that featured a lot of pea plants and handwritten scientific journal entries.
http://www.mendelthelegacy.com

And in Avignon, the side of the Popes' Palace is going to be the backdrop for a new show this Aug/Sep :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A85oJHlHUvw

These kinds of shows can be part of an interesting evening (the Brno event was preceded by a couple of popular rock bands) but I'm wondering if you have any feedback or reports to give as to whether they are worth your time?

My own experience and reactions are mixed -- I really enjoyed the daytime fountain/fire show in the public gardens in Nimes, but that was because I had done my reading beforehand and know how important that park was in the country's progress from royals to republic. OTOH, I think the Fremont St. Experience in Las Vegas is sad. It's trying to compete with the mega-corporation casinos, which is already a loser's game, and tug on your patriotic heartstrings when clearly the only thing on anyone's mind is purse strings.

I admire the thoughtfulness behind this trend in terms of wanting to be communal and inclusive and wanting to combine the new and techie with the old and brick-and-mortar, but is this kind of show any better than having a temporary stage with singers and sketches?

Posted by
4592 posts

We loved the light show at Chartres-definitely worth spending the night there! No bands-recorded classical music.

Posted by
2547 posts

The light show on the facade of the Reims cathedral was very good. The ones in Beaune on various buildings was so so. The Carrieres des Lumieres in Les Baux was really good. There is an entrance fee for the latter. There is also a light show that is part of the military tattoo at Edinburgh Castle that we enjoyed.

Posted by
4799 posts

There's quite an elaborate one INSIDE the cathedral in Montreal

Posted by
219 posts

We visited Lyon France during the Fete de Lumieres in 2012. We walked for hours each night with thousands of other people looking for and watching the different light shows. We really enjoyed it:) a whale scene projected on a wall of water, various ones projected on buildings, giant lamps, flying things, jelly fish.....

Posted by
635 posts

The "Journeys Through Ancient Rome" program at the Forum of Augustus is not exceptionally scholarly, but it is well-produced and an entertaining way to spend 45 minutes of a long, warm summer evening in Rome.

These shows are nothing new. On my first visit to Rome in 1968 there was a "Sound and Light" production nightly in the Imperial Forum. The audience sat in bleachers erected on the north slope of the Palatine Hill, while floodlights and loudspeakers in the Forum itself told the story. Finally preservationists prevailed and the unsightly bleachers, along with the lighting and sound equipment, were removed.

Posted by
3941 posts

We saw the one in the Montreal basilica years ago - it was so cool...

Posted by
3398 posts

We've been enjoying these shows in Europe since we started traveling there in the 80s. I think they're really amazing, creative, and entertaining! The technology has come so far and what they are able to do is really mind-blowing sometimes!

Posted by
6713 posts

I still remember the one I saw in the Invalides courtyard in Paris in 1963 (which must have been low-tech by today's standards). And a few years ago on the front of a cathedral in Mexico. A good one (and there must be some not so good) is a fun way to spend a summer evening and maybe learn some stuff too.

Posted by
2758 posts

Thanks for all the referrals and thumbs up, everyone!
I wonder why it seems like this kind of show is not as prevalent in the USA?

Posted by
15777 posts

I am not sure I'd enjoy one on a historic building. I quite liked the one with pop music at the Magic Fountain in Barcelona.

I also remember the old sound-and-light show at Invalides (1980, I think) because it told the story of Napoleon and was quite dramatic. If it had just been lights and music, I'm sure it would have faded from memory long ago.

Posted by
6713 posts

Yes, Chani, the Invalides one was very dramatic and of course very pro-Emperor. I was ready to vote for him! ;-)

As for why we don't have more of these in US, I expect it's because we don't have the wonderful medieval and baroque facades all over the place like they do in Europe. But we do a little of this -- colored lighting on the Empire State Building, constant white lights on all the monuments in DC, a summer light show on the otherwise bland massive face of the Grand Coulee Dam out this way....

Posted by
15777 posts

I have to admit, I was trying to think where there could be such a show in the U.S. God help us all when it gets to Yosemite.

Posted by
1064 posts

Where in the U.S.? Stone Mountain, outside Atlanta, has had a light show for decades, assuming they still have it.