Dallas Gets Flashier With Arrival Of The Aurora Light Festival

AudioPixel courtesy of Aaron Wilson

35,000 people storming the streets is not an event to be ignored—especially when the cause is linked to illumination.  The city of lights? No we’re not talking Paris, instead Dallas, where last Friday night, the mega-watt Aurora Festival for one night only dazzled the Texan metropolis with 95 light-based installation pieces that were part-theatrics, part-art, but undoubtly full of energy.

Centered in the city’s new burgeoning Arts District, this festival left no landmark or façade untouched by the flashing, visual explosion of light-meets-technology: the famously boxy Dee and Charles Wyly Theater, for example, had 3_Search’s 3D mapping projection of Dallas-scapes for a non-stop 5 hours, while at the Omni Hotel hosted a cascade parade of lights, which in turn was the largest video canvas the city has ever seen. Outside the hulking Winspear Opera House was Max Dean’s Robotic Chair, which yes, unraveled itself and put it back together again—all mechanically controlled but seeming of magic. Likewise at the end of One Arts Plaza was another mechanical installation, of umbrellas this time, opening and shuttering to the tune of "Singing in the Rain” by Peter William Holden that had folks audibly singing and dancing along. The entire spectacle, while unveiled at around 7pm, ended at midnight with a haunting performance at the Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe with bells tolling paired to neon-light performance that for a moment could have made anyone believe in the higher powers of God.

Blueprints and Perspectives by 3_Search 

Blueprints and Perspectives by 3_Search 

Lucellino Table Lamp by Ingo Maurer

Light Dancers by Mari Hidalgo

The Magnificence by JEFF SHARPE : BILL BURGESS

The Magnificence by JEFF SHARPE : BILL BURGESS

Deer by Ren Rowland

Points of Life by Shane Pennington

Street Stream by The Color Condition

For more information, visit DallasAurora.com

All images courtesy of Mark Ford Photography.