Mandylights lighting designers Richard Neville and Alex Grierson spent a month in Dubai as lighting designers for Dubai's New Year's Eve celebrations. The 25- minute show took place around the centre of Dubai in front of the Burj Khalifa - the world's tallest building. Using some 350 intelligent fixtures, the pair illuminated the Burj, lake and surrounding precinct which played host to 15 individual performer stages and a massive 210m long seamless projection screen.
The show's narrative was based on the important natural and cultural elements of the world and how they all come together. The show was first performed on New Year's Eve preceeding the midnight fireworks for a site wide audience of 1.7m people and accompanied live by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. The show then played twice nightly throughout January for the many daily visitors to the new heart of Dubai.
Lighting was fully visualised and programmed in Australia at Mandylights' Sydney studio and in a temporary facility in the United Arab Emirates before the two week long installation of fixtures spread around the site. Challenges faced by the team included lighting the Burj Khalifa in its entirety from the ground with the team turning to Clay Paky Sharpys and Falcon Beams to wash the building with colour and create a range of special effects that had not been seen before on the 826m high tower. With fixtures located so close to the spectacular Dubai Fountain, custom made waterproof housings were constructed for the Auras and Alpha Beam fixtures, and wireless DMX was utilised extensively around the site to reach the various lake stages spread around the enormous man-made lake.
