The Festival of Light returned to Longleat Safari & Adventure Park in Wiltshire, UK, at Christmas after a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19, placing storytelling at the heart of the experience.

The Wondrous Worlds of Roald Dahl trail invited visitors to meet their favourite childhood characters from the Road Dahl collections including James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr Fox, Matilda, The Twits and Danny Champion of the World. The lantern trail illuminated more than 30 acres of the park using projection mapping and light displays.

“The IP for Roald Dahl was secured back in 2019 and the team unanimously agreed that it would be a fantastic family favourite to return with,” said Daisy Mercedes, event & product development manager at Longleat Safari & Adventure Park.

“Every year we come up with a new narrative for the lanterns and use audio, and lighting effects to bring the stories to life and create an enchanting experience for visitors. The creation and planning of the lantern show took more than two years – finally opening the park with such a unique theme was an incredible experience.”

The annual Festival of Light also features a 20m projection mapped Christmas tree which marks the end of the lantern trail. The concept and design of the tree was delivered by design specialists LCI Productions.

“The tree forms part of a projection mapped show, which uses a 52m-wide Longleat stable building to project upon, said LCI Productions design director Rob Paul.

“We designed the tree using more than 100,000 LEDs – it's controlled by 14 pixelators, each of which run on 24 light chains. We programme these to create animated sequences, controlled using a 2x2 Disguise media server.”

LCI delivered the full audio, visual and lighting production, including technical design, concept creation, original media and audio scores, installation, show programming and onsite maintenance throughout the live dates. This included hand stitching the LEDs on to the rolled steel tree frame to form an accurate grid pattern.

“The original content has been created by our in-house team of character artists, animators and motion graphic experts to include festive imagery and mischievous elves who pop up in the windows in between shows, each with a story to tell,” said Paul.

“Looking ahead, we’d love to expand this part of the light festival,” said Mercedes.

“We’d like to extend the storytelling section of the show and create more interactive elements for the audience to get involved with. We’ll be exploring new technologies that we can bring in to further enhance the experience using more advanced mapping techniques and LED pixels. 2023 is certainly set to be another busy and exciting year.”