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Bristol Gets Set to Light up This Christmas

Light Up Bristol14 creatives, 7 projectors and 2 tonnes of snow all set for Bristol this December

A group of Bristol's leading creatives are joining forces to put on a dazzling projection lightshow across the city centre this December, entitled 'Light Up Bristol'.

Featuring seven of the world's most powerful projectors, 400ft animations and moving images, the five day event promises to be one of the biggest light events in the UK.

The event will also be surrounded by a huge hourly snow blizzard which will transform the city centre into a winter wonderland.

Light Up Bristol is being developed by Bristol Media, the city's creative networking and support organisation, and the West of England Design Forum, who have invited a team of 14 of the city's leading creatives from companies including Aardman Animations, E3, Beef, Oakwood DC, Thirteen and McCann Erickson to work alongside each other on the project.

Clare Reddington, iShed Producer who are helping to stage the event, said: "We did a city-wide call to all of the creative shops to see who wanted to work with us to develop the designs and animations. We were completely inundated. People are willing to invest the time on top of their day to day work to help make this it one of the most spectacular and jaw dropping lightshows the UK has seen. Concepts are being developed by each agency, following an enchanted winter wonderland theme".

Dan Efergan, Digital Creative Director of Aardman Animations said: "Designers tend to spend our lives working on a 19 inch monitor, so to be asked to produce 400ft animations and visuals that are going to be thrown all over the city, hell yes, we all jumped at the chance. The opportunity to use major Bristol landmarks such as the Council House and Cathedral as a massive canvas and bring the city to life with moving image, animation, colour and textures, well opportunities like that don't come around that often."

A similar event was held last year which was a huge success, but organiserrs are planning to make this one much bigger by using the animations and projectors as the centre piece to a week long city winter festival.

Mus has been commissioned to go alongside all the animations and state of the art snow machines used at Pinewood Studios will blitz the city on an hourly basis with a huge snow blizzard. The machines were previously used in the film 'The Day After Tomorrow' where New York disappeared under 300ft of snow and ice.


'Light Up Bristol' will run between 17th to 21st December 2007 where seven of the world's most high-powered projectors will throw 400ft animations and moving images across a one square mile area of Bristol City Centre.

Click here for Video Footage of Light Up Bristol 2006.