Castle of Light
An illuminated walk / son et lumière installation in Scotland’s Number 1 Tourist Attraction.
This was the first major public event hosted within the walls of the Scotland’s number one tourist attraction after dark. A walk-through “son et lumiere” style show designed to deliver an enchanting, magical experience for all of the family, running for a 5 week period with timed entry and a suggested 90 minute slot to enjoy the spectacular immersive show, spread across nine separate locations in this historic landmark.
The show has returned and continues to evolve annually with new installations and features – tickets are on sale now for the 2023 dates from Edinburgh Castle.
About the Castle of Light
The creative content of the show took its cues from the history of the building itself which stunning visuals and state of the art lighting installations to bring the past to life, transforming the castle with state-of-the-art projection installations and enchanting storytelling.
This event was brought together by The Castle of Light Consortium partners who were able to deliver a world-class immersive audio-visual installation by meshing their talents to make the most of what was a truly fantastic opportunity to work within the iconic building at the heart of their hometown. The Castle of Light partners are Double Take Projections, NL Productions, Andy McGregor Design and War Productions Ltd, who worked together with HES, to create this innovative illuminated walking tour.
Each site within the castle walls given a unique treatment choosing the best combination of design elements from the available palette including large scale projection mapping, programmed effects lighting, flames, smoke, sound installations, bespoke music, poetry and lasers but the whole experience was brought together as a cohesive whole by the creative story telling based on the history of the nation and its capital city, with the castle at the heart of it all.
The nine locations that were chosen offered a range of practical challenges, but some were common across the whole site – as 900 year old historic landmark, each installation element had to be fully removable yet permanent enough to make it though the five week period on top of a Scottish hill unscathed. The other overall site challenge was the fact that Edinburgh Castle is Scotlands’ most visited tourist attraction and remained open throughout what was a complicated installation period, and that the installations had to avoid any negative impact for the Castle‘s daily tourist trade.
The first site in the walk-round experience was also the largest, as visitors arrive on the Castle Esplanade (site of the Edinburgh Tattoo) and they were greeted with a 50 meter wide panoramic projection and audio installation introducing the Castle of Light event in spectacular fashion.
From there guests ventured onwards through the castle to view the featured sites, ending with a grand finale in Crown Square. When running the event could be seen from the surrounding city as the laser and light show burst across the sky from Edinburghs’ landmark Castle. See the picture gallery below, TV ad (youtube) and Panasonic case study (youtube) for more info.
Castle of Light Consortium Partners
War Productions Limited
War Productions Limited have been trading since 1989 and has a strong focus towards the artistic use of digital video. Beginning as a lighting company, WarPro’s creative bent shifted towards the use of live projection in the very early days of the technology as production company for Orbital, Aphex Twin, Shamen and more. WarPro have specialized more and more in the creative use of projection for an ever growing commercial and artistic client base.
Double Take Productions
Double Take Projections Ltd is an innovative Scottish design consultancy specialising in creating immersive visual experiences using a technique called Projection Mapping. They are a bespoke company, creating unique one-off spectacles, and able to radically alter the character of an environment or object by projecting from different angles onto a variety of surfaces. They have years of experience of producing and designing some of Scotland’s biggest Light shows. Double Take are a one stop shop for projection activity, designing content, designing social content and marketing material.
NL Productions
NL Productions is a creative event production company based in Leith with more than forty years’ experience in the industry. Over the years, NLP has built up a large number of professional relationships across a wide variety of industries based on trust, reliability and a high standard of communication and project management.
Andy McGregor
Andy McGregor has over 25 years’ experience as a multimedia artist, designer and creative director. He was a founder member of the art / dance music & performance group Fini Tribe and pursued this alongside a degree at Glasgow School of Art. In the late 80’s he began working in digital media and enrolled in the post graduate electronic imaging course in Dundee. He has consistently worked at the boundaries of design, art, technology and performance. He has produced work for high profile organisations such as The National Galleries of Scotland, Historic Scotland, Glasgow Life, Venice Theatre Biennale, Edinburgh International Science Festival, Harper Collins Publishing UK, The Queen’s Gallery at Holyrood House and Drambuie Distillers.
Historic Environment Scotland (HES)
We are the lead public body charged with caring for, protecting and promoting the historic environment. We will lead on delivering Scotland’s first strategy for the historic environment, Our Place in Time.
Historic Scotland, Scran, Canmore, The National Collection of Aerial Photography (NCAP), The Engine Shed, Stirling Castle and Edinburgh Castle are sub-brands of HES.
Contact Us
Would you like to speak to us about a similar project? Please don’t hesitate to call us on 0131 558 3824 or send us an email to info@warpro.co.uk.
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