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Urström at the 1999 Stockholm Water Festival

SHOW DIARY

Day 13 - Sunday August 15

    No rest for laserists! Despite the late night, Jan called me at noon and we agreed to meet up at 13:00. Jan, Adela and myself went over to Arvid's place to drop off some equipment of his and then headed out towards the Obscura Magica studio. On the way we passed a gas station and I was alarmed to see the price at 8.61 SEK ($ 1.04 US$) per litre in 1999!

Expensive gas!

    We stopped at hotel in Sollentuna for lunch. This hotel was the place where Jan did his first ever laser show for a car introduction. Over an excellent lunch, he regaled us with stories of how the hotel was so proud of it's computer controlled air-conditioning and fire detection systems. Unfortunately they were run from a central location some 15 Km away and were difficult to shut off for the show so the smoke kept disappearing or tripping the fire alarm. Finally a technician had to be summoned to disconnect the system while the show was in progress.
    After lunch we drove to Bo Anderson's home and studio which are located in the countryside nearby. When we walked through his yard, Jan asked me if I could tell the difference between which parts were art and which were junk and frankly it is confusing. Inside his studio there is no confusion. In a private upstairs gallery, many of the works I had seen in the book were on display. Photographs can not do the colours and textures of the artworks justice. They have to be seen first hand to be really appreciated.

Bo with one of his sculptures, a book with iron covers and copper pages.

    We continued on to the Obscura Magica studio with a brief stop at a store to buy a newspaper. there was a full page ad in the paper with the headline roughly translated as "Stockholm shines again at the Water Festival" and a picture of the laser show.

Full page ad with laser show picture.

    At the studio, we sorted out some of the equipment and made sure my stuff was properly packed for the trip back. I had some time to sit down with Jan and Adela and we watched the video tape of the last show. Adela really enjoyed this as she had been unable to see much of the show, especially the facade projections, from her perch atop the Fire tower. I went over parts of the report and did some fact checking with Jan but all too soon it was time to head off to the airport in Jan's car, a beach buggy, for the flight home.
    Jan's parting words were, "It was a lot of work... more work than we expected, ya. But we were a group of small companies and we pulled off something really big".

Off to the airport in the official Obscura Magica limousine - Photo by Adela Lopez-Bago

    I would like to thank Jan for the opportunity to collaborate with him and participate in this magnificent spectacle. I would also like to thank Bo, Adela, Arvid and Magnus who made me feel welcome and helped me to learn a few phrases of Swedish and to appreciate the beautiful and historic city of Stockholm.

Quick Links to Report Pages

Stockholm Water Festival Report - Introduction
Sweden and Stockholm - Background and general information
The Site - Orientation to the show area and the challenges it presented
The Crew - The people who put it all together
Tech Specs - The equipment used in the presentation
The Music - An interview with the composer and MP3 file of the soundtrack
Smoke on the water - Covering a lake with smoke for beam effects
The Show - A description with many pictures
Animated Gifs - Gifs showing Palace projections and climatic beam effects
Stadshuset - Stockholm City Hall tour (very large page)
Show Diary - Day-to-day coverage of the trials and triumphs

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