St. Petersburg Festival of Light Breaks Attendance Record
Automatic translateOn November 4 and 5, the regular autumn season of the St. Petersburg Festival of Light took place on Palace Square and on Petrogradskaya Embankment near Aurora. A publicly accessible city holiday, organized by the Committee on Tourism Development of St. Petersburg, gathered about a million spectators in two evenings at both venues.
On Palace Square, residents and visitors of the city saw two large-scale 3D-mapping programs. On the facade of the General Staff building, a 13-minute video projection show was dedicated to one year from the history of Russia. The project “1917”, created by the creative brand Dance Open (St. Petersburg) together with a team of video artists from the creative bureau Cosmo AV (France), impressed the audience not only with visual effects, but also with the depth of emotional immersion in the atmosphere of the era. On the gigantic “screen” of the facade of the General Staff building appeared images of revolutionary hard times. Month after month, the events of the fateful year flashed: a meeting of the new 1917, workers’ strikes, the February Revolution, the abdication of Nicholas II from the throne, the theses of Lenin in April, the storming of the Winter… The General Staff building "changed clothes" in the Winter Palace, in the Putilov Factory, in the mansion of Matilda Kshesinsky, to the Alexandrinsky Theater…
The musical canvas of the 3D performance included fragments of the works of Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Glinka, Schnittke, Beethoven, Prokofiev, and in the final episodes - music from movies and melodies from romances. The characters of the performance and the era were voiced by the People’s Artist of Russia Nikolai Burov, beloved by millions of spectators, and the actress of the youth theater on the Fontanka, actress of Russian cinema Anna Geller.
The “1917” project did not set out to answer on whose side the descendants — it intentionally did not contain unambiguous conclusions. The audience was invited not to evaluate, but to try to understand and accept the past, try on the feelings of a variety of people. “We do not want to teach anyone. We do not want to inspire anything. We want more awareness, sobriety, responsibility, wisdom and love, ”the director and director Ekaterina Galanova commented on the idea of the 1917 project,“ at all times, whenever a person lives, this is the main thing. ”
For the first time, a creative competition of video artists from around the world took place at the Festival of Light on Palace Square. The idea of creative struggle was prompted by the audience themselves: after a spontaneous vote on social networks, which unfolded a year ago for the best 3D-mapping on St. Isaac’s Square, this season it was decided to turn the initiative into a tradition. As part of the program “I keep this city,” five 3D-mapping sketches of five teams of mappers from Russia, Poland, France, Italy and Spain were shown on the facade of the Winter Palace. Everyone could vote for the best declaration of love for St. Petersburg online.
All creative works were devoted to St. Petersburg and became living illustrations for favorite songs about our city. The square sang along to Alexander Rosenbaum (“Sadness flew over”), Svetlana Surganova (“Peter”), Boris Grebenshchikov (“Gold on blue”), Yuri Shevchuk (“What is autumn”) and danced under “Stone Flowers” by Basta, Smokey Mo and Elena Vaenga. It is noteworthy that among the participants in the competition there was not a single artist from St. Petersburg: it was a view of the city from the side, impressions and improvisation of travelers, guests and tourists.
As a result of online voting, which lasted all the days of the Festival, Petersburgers gave their sympathies to the team of Spanish video artists Romera Infografia, who brought romance and rap to life to the heart’s symbols and images dear to the heart: the Bronze Horseman, Atlantes, bridges and even moved the Aurora.
Meanwhile, the second part of the autumn Festival of Light, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the revolution, unfolded on Petrograd embankment. The Triumph company (directed by Valery Tkachenko), together with the team of Russian video artists Dream Lazer, turned the legendary cruiser Aurora into the main character of the festive events. For the first time in the world, a warship appeared as a “screen” for a 3D-mapping performance. The construction of the cruiser and the battle path of the Aurora, recognizable historical milestones of the early twentieth century, the famous volley, revolution, subsequent major events of the country and its modern images were presented in a bewitching three-dimensional dimension. The show used both mapping technologies and amazing video and sound effects, powerful lighting devices and pyrotechnics.
"The festival of light in front of our eyes is turning into a unique St. Petersburg brand, and I am sure that this project is a 100% hit on the realization of ambitions to strengthen the image of the city as one of the most attractive tourist capitals in the world," said Andrey Mushkarev, Chairman of the Committee for Tourism Development of St. Petersburg.
The Festival of Light, organized by the Committee on Tourism Development of St. Petersburg, turned one year old, but it has already become a must-see of the international cultural calendar. The first show was held in April 2016 - the screen was the facade of the oldest imperial Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. In November 2016, the facades of the Mariinsky Palace and St. Isaac’s Cathedral showed 3D multimedia performances dedicated to St. Petersburg. The show on St. Isaac’s Square, which received enthusiastic responses and a wide response not only in the city, but also in the country, was seen by more than 400 thousand spectators. In April 2017, the Festival of Light integrated the facade of the St. Petersburg Arena stadium into visual technology. In November 2017, organized at two iconic venues in St. Petersburg - Palace Square and Petrogradskaya Embankment - the Festival of Light broke the attendance record, reaching the audience for the first time.