More free tickets (but only a very limited number) will be available from the Edinburgh International Festival website tomorrow. 20,000 tickets were already snapped up on the day they were released, and if that was you then get along to the box office to pick them up as quickly as you can. But if not then you need to get online today!
This event is a larger version of the opening event from last year when the International Festival Artistic Associates 59 Productions lit up the Usher Hall accompanied by music in the Harmonium Project.
It will involve 42 projectors training digital images onto the western face of Edinburgh Castle and the Castle Rock. The images are inspired by the city’s 350 million year history and the animated sequences will pay tribute to the geological concept of ‘deep time’ which was devised by Edinburgh resident and Enlightenment thinker James Hutton.
This is one of the largest architectural mapping projects which 59 Productions have ever undertaken. The creative company were responsible for the video design at the London Olympics in 2012 and they have mapped the Sydney Opera House and the UN HQ in New York.
The event will use images made with 3D animation and projection techniques. University of Edinburgh academics were involved in helping to develop the storyboard which is now choreographed to a musical soundtrack.
Leo Warner, Director of 59 Productions: “Edinburgh has one of the most distinctive topographies in the world, and the Standard Life Opening Event: Deep Time is a celebration of the city and its distinctive architecture: the bedrock on which it is built, and the people who have made, and continue to make the city the vibrant cultural and intellectual hub that it is today. This event also pushes us our team beyond where we went with The Harmonium Project – the projector count alone, and the mounting positions on roofs, present a practical challenge which far surpasses the projection challenges of even the Olympic Opening Ceremony. In terms of scale, it’s three times bigger than The Harmonium Project, but then, it had to be epic for Edinburgh – and these are the kinds of creative challenges we enjoy best.”
The finale of the event will explore Edinburgh through its human population, flashing through thousands of faces of residents from the past and the present. These are drawn from historical and present-day sources, and will be solicited directly from local people, some of whom will themselves be amongst the audience for the show, the culmination of which is a vibrant celebration of Edinburgh today.
Monday is the final chance for people who have a connection to Edinburgh to help create this moment. The International Festival and 59 Productions are looking to include hundreds of photographs of those who have a connection to the city in the finale of this spectacular art work.
Fergus Linehan, Edinburgh International Festival Director, said: ‘I’m so excited by the prospect of the Standard Life Opening Event: Deep Time and this amazing artwork through which we’re celebrating our home city’s impact on the world stage throughout history and today. Working with Standard Life, 59 Productions, the University of Edinburgh, EventScotland, Edinburgh Castle and Blue-i Theatre Technology & mclcreate, we invite Edinburgh residents and visitors to experience the event with us. This year, and in the future, the Standard Life Opening Event will declare to the world in spectacular style that the International Festival, and Edinburgh’s summer festival season, is truly open.’
Keith Skeoch, Chief Executive, Standard Life, said: ‘We’re counting down the days to this unique event which will give the people of Edinburgh, including our employees, the opportunity to be part of an incredible work of art. As a global business founded in Edinburgh almost 200 years ago, we’re proud of our heritage and to be part of this city and its wider community. We’re very much looking forward to seeing the pioneering spirit of the people of Edinburgh, past and present, being brought to life at the Standard Life Opening Event for this year’s Edinburgh International Festival.’
Nick Finnigan, Executive Manager of Edinburgh Castle, which is managed by Historic Environment Scotland, added: ‘As the backdrop for key moments in Scottish history and iconic international contemporary celebrations and events, the castle captivates audiences from home and further afield and the Standard Life Opening Event: Deep Time is no exception.’
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
