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Laser
F/X On-line Newsletter - Special Reports
Urström
at the 1999 Stockholm Water Festival
INTRODUCTION
Report compiled and edited by
L. Michael Roberts
Stockholm Water
Festival
The Stockholm
Water Festival is a major event in Sweden. The Swedes have an annual
holiday period from the beginning of July till the middle of August when
almost everyone takes holidays and business, especially heavy industries and
construction, comes to a virtual standstill. The water festival is timed to
take advantage of this and draws crowds from all over Sweden, Norway,
Finland and other parts of Europe and the UK.
Most of the downtown core is closed to vehicle traffic
with massive stages being erected in parks and waterfront parking lots where
many famous names perform nightly. The streets and bridges are lined with
vendor tents where once can sample exotic foods from around the globe, buy
clothing, pins, flags, trinkets toys or even take a scuba diving lesson in a
floating swimming pool. Barges are towed in and converted to floating
restaurants and bars where you can enjoy a meal or drinks while bobbing
gently on the water.
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The festival
celebrates ecology and the water in and around Stockholm which is an
integral part of the city and it's life. A special 80 meter high
fountain is installed for the event (picture below right), there is
an emphasis on water based events such as the water-skiing show, and
there are even "hydro bikes" on pontoons that allow one to
go for a leisurely pedal on the water. In keeping with the
ecological theme, food vendors use paper plates and cups and cutlery
is made from wood. Even the crew passes (picture on left) are made
of a thin slice of wood printed with non-toxic inks!
There is an environmental organisation in Sweden
that gives out an annual prize for the cleanest festival. Garbage
containers are located everywhere around the site and garbage
collectors patrol the streets picking up what litter is not placed
in containers. As a result, the festival area (which attracts over
100,000 visitors a day) is cleaner than the streets of New York are
on an average day.
This concern for ecology and the
environment was the genesis of the nightly laser presentations. Concerned
with the effects that the toxic chemicals from spent shells of the
traditional nightly fireworks displays was causing to the water, the
organisers sought a replacement spectacle to entertain the crowds of 30,000
to 40,000 people per night. Enter Jan Kriland and the laser saga "Urström".
Urström is a Swedish play on words. The first part (Ur)
means "original/ancient", while the second part (ström) means
"current" which could either be a current in a waterway/river or
an electrical current. |
| What
you will find here
This report covers not only
the technical and artistic aspects of the show, but also contains a
day-to-day diary of the show written from the perspective of one of
the members of the crew who helped realise this magnificent
spectacle. The laser saga Urström entertained an estimated audience
of over 300,000 people during it's 9 night run at the Water
Festival.
In order to present as many pictures as possible,
we have broken this special report down into a number of pages to
speed access. Most of these are large pages with many images so
please be patient while loading.
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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
DISCLAIMER:
Some of the information in the Backstage area is provided by the
persons or companies named on the relevant page(s). Laser F/X does
NOT endorse or recommend any products/services and is NOT
responsible for the technical accuracy of the information
provided. We provide this information as a service to
laserists using the Backstage area.
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