This year has seen the greatest 20th of August event series ever. The grandiose fireworks, the unique light-show for the Parliament and the National Gallery, and the technical support for every St. Stephen’s Day event location meant a great challenge for Visual Europe Group as well. Uniquely for this year, we have light-mapped the Danube-front of the Parliament from a 300m distance. We have been working on the project to occupy 100 colleagues for 6 months, and had 250 people for construction and disassembly works.
On the eve of the 20th of August, more than 70 000 people were eager to see the most impressive fireworks of all time. Budapest was welcoming visitors on 15 locations on St. Stephen’s Day including the Danube river bank, the Parliament, Vigadó square, Vörösmarty Square and the City Park. Visual Europe Production met the immense professional challenge to execute the technical support for all the event locations.
‘We assisted St.Stephen Day’s programs by covering gigantic spaces and significant distances. The biggest challenge was to establish the proper logistics and network structure’ – said Szabolcs Botond, CEO of Visual Europe Group.
‘Parade of Light and Fire’ this is how the largest fireworks and light-show of Europe was entitled. Visual Europe Group was responsible for not only the light mapping duties and lighting technology but also the sound system and the setting of video walls. The production had a 6 moths preparation phase. The events employed more than 100 colleagues and 250 craftsmen were involved in construction and dismantling works. 1000 smart lamps, 7 video walls and 2 LED trailers were set up to create a unique experience.
This day grandiosely perfused both the front of the Parliament and the National Gallery with light. Yet, mapping the former on the Danube front meant a special technical challenge.
‘The mapping distance was 250-300m while the mapped picture had to meticulously adapt pixel-by-pixel to the building’s front which is extraordinarily rich in detail. We operated nearly 50 projectors with almost 1 700 000 lumen luminous power for the mapping’. – informs Szabolcs Botond, CEO. Visual Europe Group was pledged for planning as well as conceptional and technological execution. This year was special to see the country’s biggest lightmapping teams and independent light-artists cooperate for the very first time. The gigantic size of the show made former rehearsals merely impossible but secret night mappings and 3D print maquettes helped the technology’s testing.
