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Urström at the 1999 Stockholm Water Festival

THE SHOW

    Describing a laser show in words can never do it justice. Even pictures and videos fail to convey the colours, texture and awesome scale of a show such as this. The show is so large that there is no one place you can stand to see everything! Combine that with an artistic vision that does not use a narrative form, and the experience becomes almost impossible to convey. Here is a 'best attempt' to give the reader an audience eye view of the show.

    A few minutes before 23:00 each night, the streetlights, the lights on the floating restaurants and the lights in the vendors tents wink out. The sound from the stages and restaurants around the square falls silent and the centre of Stockholm is enveloped in darkness while an expectant hush comes over the thousands gathered on almost 2 Km of roads and embankments around the site to witness the spectacle.
The city, it's historic buildings and the water are ready to become a stage on which the laser saga "Urström" will be played out.

[00:00] Wind sounds come from the massive PA systems while smoke wafts across the water and through the air adding to the expectations.
[01:00] On the first note of music, a single laser beam pierces the air from locations all around the site expanding into curving fans as the tempo of the music picks up. A single cyan beam reaches out to touch the water reflecting into a fan of light through the smoke.

Opening Beams viewed from the Opera side of the site

There is a brief interplay of beams and fan effects over the water leading to a moment when the sky seems to be filled with a lattice work of laser beams going in every direction.

Fan effect and sky beams seen from the Palace side of the site

[02:40] There is a burst of fire from both towers at the climax of this section which symbolises the ending of the ice age. The focus shifts to the massive projection screen on the face of the Opera House for the first stereoscopic 3D segment.

Fire and laser fans seen from the Fire tower scaffolding looking towards the Opera.

[03:06] Abstract shapes fill the screen and leap out towards the viewers. The fire has brought an end to the "ice age" and the oceans are coming alive. Stylized sea creatures 'swim' across the screen and towards the viewer while aqua coloured waves of laser float slowly above the audience. Green seaweed undulates on the screen seeming to sway to the music.

Water 'creature' on the Opera screen with sky fans

[06:48] The Opera screen goes blank and static beams fill the sky as the focus shifts to the 'basket' which is suspended about 2/3 of the way from the 'fire tower' over the water. Lime green beams shoot down onto the surface of the water as the basket slowly begins to move towards the fire tower.

Beams from the 'basket' laser play across the water

Graphics of primitive birds are projected onto the two scrims that hang over the water, seeming to fly through a web of laser beams.

2D image on the scrim over the water

2D image on scrim at top left with beam effects seen from the Fire tower scaffolding

The tempo picks up as fans of beams in the sky are mimicked by the basket laser on it's stately trip over the waters ending in a cone of laser beams that comes to a point as the basket reaches the fire tower.

[07:03] The tempo of the music changes. The focus moves to the 3D projections on the Royal Palace. We have moved from the realm of the deep and the air onto the land. Abstracted dinosaur like creatures move across the screen and interplay with abstract shapes moving to a trip through a three dimensional tunnel. The stereoscopic Pani projectors kick in with a 3D image on the Palace screen.

3D animal on the Palace screen.

3D abstract effects on the Palace screen

[10:00] The tempo of the music slows and enters a darker more mysterious phase. The facade of the Royal Palace comes alive with a series of giant images over a city block long. The images take one on a time trip of human history beginning with symbols from pre historic cave paintings, Viking symbols, then progressing through ancient, renascence and nautical motifs.
[13:47] Enter the industrial age where the facade of the palace is re-decorated by gigantic riveted steel beams then again with other more modern motefs including a reference to the plaza in front of Stockholm's famous "Kulturhuset".
[15:20] The music progresses to a more funky Eurobeat as one enters the modern era while images of modern pictograms appear symbolising the information age and cell phone like sounds are heard over the music.
[16:29] The beat of the music then enters a more confused and discordant state as the palace is covered in a circuit board motif and giant IC chips.

[16:45] The lasers re-enter with beams scanned across the top of the palace as the hi-tech motif fades from the Palace facade leading to bursts of beams from the various laser positions around the site.
[17:10] The music changes again as we move towards the future and the focus moves back to the Palace laser screen where a series of abstract mechanical shapes eventually assemble themselves into a mechanical dragon fly like creature.
[18:21] To a clicking sound in the musical accompaniment, it begins to move it's wings and fly around the screen eventually morphing into a beautiful, colourful flowing 3D butterfly that seems to fly off the screen and over the spectator's heads. A 'cage' of laser beams descends over the butterfly trapping it on the screen.

The colourful butterfly is caged by green beams

[19:30] The beam lasers pick up the 'cage motif' moving around the sky as if in search of butterflies of their own to capture. Suddenly lights come on over the water and a woman is revealed in mid air surrounded by smoke and laser beams as if personifying the captured butterfly.

The figure of a woman is revealed suspended over the water in a cage of laser beams

[19:52] The woman moves in a series of slow gestures that reflect laser beams into the sky from mirrors on her arms.

[20:48] Suddenly everything goes black and the woman disappears, there are two brief flashes from the the beam lasers around the site, then the dramatic climax with smoke on the water, fire in the sky from the tops of the towers, sheets of laser descending into the water, a final brief projection on the palace facade and an ear shattering bang!

Dramatic finale sequence seen from the Fire tower scaffolding

Animated .gif files

We have two animated .gif files available to help you get a sense of the dramatic nature of the show. To see these large files which will take some time to load, click HERE

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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