The city of Santiago de Compostela celebrates its patron saint with an audiovisual and fireworks show by ACCIONA Producciones y Diseño

The City Council of Santiago de Compostela has asked ACCIONA Producciones y Diseño to organize the audiovisual and fireworks display for its patron saint festivities once again. It can be seen in the Plaza del Obradoiro on July 24^th at 23:30. This year the central theme will be the celebration of the declaration of the historic quarter of the city of Santiago de Compostela as a UNESCO World Heritage Site 30 years ago. The main novelty of this edition is that the show will occupy different parts of Obradoiro Square to create a 'wrap-around’ effect, with the multimedia projections being shown on the façade of the Cathedral and Raxoi Palace. There will also be other light and fireworks effects on other buildings in the square, such as the Parador and the Rectorado.

The show will consist of seven different scenes showing popular traditions in Galicia, iconic elements of the Pilgrim’s Way, and shots of the most emblematic places in Santiago de Compostela that helped the historic quarter of the city to gain the status of UNESCO World Heritage Site thirty years ago.

ACCIONA Producciones y Diseño has created a multimedia show using state-of-the-art audiovisual techniques such as warping(the projection of images on buildings to highlight their features), special effects, fireworks and music. This year the human element will be particularly important, with a figure on stilts wandering around the square, a band of Galician bagpipe players and other musicians who will interpret the soundtrack of the show.

In this edition the show - dedicated to the Apostle Santiago (St James) – will be immersive, using different parts of the square for the first time to combine projections, light effects, fireworks and real musicians so that spectators can enjoy a larger ‘stage’ and a 360-degree ‘wrap around’ experience. It is ACCIONA Producciones y Diseño’s solution to solve the problem posed by the restoration work on the façade of the Cathedral, which means that the number of images that can be projected onto it is limited due to the difficulty of seeing them on the scaffolding.

During the show, fire and fireworks will alternate with projections on the most emblematic buildings in the square, which will act as ‘screens’ to show 3D effects. ACCIONA Producciones y Diseño will install 11 video projectors (each one of 22 000 lux), 36 mobile light beam projectors and 6 sound towers (80 000 watts).

ACCIONA Producciones y Diseño has designed and staged the show for the Festivity of Santiago on ten occasions, and in 2012 it won the Prize for the Best Cultural Event in Europe in the European Events Awards (EuBEA) and the Jury’s Grand Award in the Eventoplus Prizes.

Projects like this one are part of what ACCIONA Producciones y Diseño calls “Cultural Engineering”, a concept that involves using state-of-the-art visual and sensorial technology to disseminate the history, traditions and values of a city or place, increasing its interest as a tourist destination in the process.

As in previous editions, and as a result of ACCIONA’s overall sustainability approach in all its activities, the event will be ‘carbon neutral’. This means that the CO₂ emissions related to it will be calculated and then offset in a clean energy project, giving a final balance of zero.