Light Odyssey at the Empress Ballroom
Johnny James, Managing Editor
The award-winning Lightpool Festival is back again this year, with a spectacular launch event on the 18 October, featuring the BBC Philharmonic.
As the name suggests, Lightpool is a festival of light, located in Blackpool. It features a mix of live performances, unique collaborations, and light-based art installations. In 2016, its inaugural event was named as the best major event in the Lancashire Tourism Awards. Though last year’s festival was a smaller affair, this year it will return with more grandeur than ever, lighting up the seaside town with a host of exciting spectacles. Its cornerstone event, and the one which will launch the festival, is Light Odyssey.
Light Odyssey will bring the iconic Empress Ballroom to life with 2D and 3D light animation, in a spectacle which pushes the boundaries of light, space and sound. A unique event for the festival, it’s a collaboration with the BBC Philharmonic. The renowned orchestra will treat Blackpool to a show-stopping programme, featuring Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber, Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copland and English Folk Song Suite by Ralph Vaughan Williams. This programme will be paired with a stunning visual display in which the ballroom’s vast interior will be transformed into a giant canvas.
These visuals have been carefully crafted by an international team of animators. Their task has been to respond to the Empress Ballroom’s magnificent architecture, as well as to the wonderful music. Over recent months their process has involved making a detailed 3D model of the venue, which has allowed them to tailor-make their animations for this unique space. They won’t be the only animators to unveil their work, though. Students of Video Design for Live Performance at the London Guildhall School of Music and Drama will also get the chance to show off their skills, having been given the amazing opportunity to close the show.
