With one of the largest community participation events ever held in Denmark,
Aarhus recently celebrated its inauguration as one of the two European Capitals of
Culture 2017. The European Capital of Culture is a city designated by the European
Union for a period of one calendar year during which it organises a series of
cultural events with a strong European dimension.
The opening ceremony was created by artistic director, Nigel Jamieson, one of the
world’s leading creators of theatre and large-scale events. Working with Berlin-
based creative production company battleROYAL, lighting designer and programmer
Chris Moylan was asked to create a lighting design representative of this landmark
event. Using 2 x grandMA2 full-size, 2 x grandMA2 light, 6 x MA NPU (Network
Processing Unit) and 1 x MA onPC command wing as back-up Moylan controlled a
show with more than 600 fixtures.
Aarhus opened their ceremony with a poetic and traditional lantern parade
stretching from one side of the city to the other. Along the way many architectural
wonders of Aarhus were lit and used as beacons to provide a design that
encompassed the entire city.
Moylan commented: “We are passionate grandMA2 users and were able to use
some advanced workflow techniques to easily program and prepare everything
beforehand, saving us precious hours on the ground.’
“We used three different control stations for this project’, explained Moylan. “Two
spread across the city and one 3D programming station. The MA NPU were
distributed in areas were groups of lights were clustered. Thanks to the robust
import and export system of the grandMA2 we were able to easily jump on the 3D
station during the day and quickly correct or update our sequences and pre-sets
during the night.’
“This project was very special because everyone was so unbelievably positive’,
continued Moylan. “There were so many happy volunteers, eager to help out and
show Aarhus in the best light possible. The technical team was incredibly supportive
and you could tell everyone was very proud to show the world what Aarhus can do!’
“The Queen of Denmark opened the ceremony by raising a ship shaped lantern and
signalling the parade to start moving. She originally planned to leave shortly
afterwards, but ended up staying much longer to watch and marvel at the intricate
lantern boats and massive parade.’
Matthias Schoffmann worked as additional programmer. Nordic Rentals A/S
provided the lighting equipment. Gobo & Highlight A/S is the exclusive distributor of
MA Lighting in Denmark.
