A year after the collapse imposed by the coronavirus pandemic, the Bella Skyway Festival has returned to the ancient city of Toruń and its surroundings. Light projections of the historical complex, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, this year acquired the world-famous partner – Disney.
In previous years, about 400 thousand people visited the Toruń light festival, which lasted several days. A year ago, the form of a group meeting in the old town was not possible, so the event was moved to the airport, and the projections of light can be admired while driving along the five-kilometer road. After a year of rest, the event returned to the old town space on Tuesday evening.
The twelfth edition of the festival includes 12 light installations and five festive evenings. The event will run until Saturday, August 21. The epidemic left its mark on the event insofar as it was necessary to divide the festival into three closed zones, entry to which is recorded. Within areas, there is an obligation to cover the mouth and nose.
Despite these minor inconveniences, the festival’s audience responded in droves to the organizers’ call on the first day.
The mapping of “The Great Festival of Princesses: Paradise Full of Courage and Kindness” has been declared by the organizers to be the most magical in the history of the festival. Created by Portuguese artists, the show at the Collegium Maximum transports viewers to Disney World. The show was created by, among others scenes with the participation of “the curious world of Ariel from + The Little Mermaid +, the tireless Tiana from + The Princess and the Frog +, throwing herself into the adventures of Rapunzel from + Tangled +, the independent Merida of + Merida the Brave +, Vaiana – the brave explorer from the movie + Vaiana: Treasure of the Ocean + and the queens Anna and Elsa from + Frozen +”. The message of the show is to try to change the world for the better with even the smallest daily acts of courage and good deeds.
“There has never been a project like this in the history of the Bella Skyway Festival. For the first time, the audience could see cartography not on one, but at the same time on two walls of the Collegium Maximum UMK. This previously unavailable opened opportunities for artists to tell a story. Unique from Its kind, because it is linked to the values we all associate with well-known characters from Disney films,” said Director Christian Kopjaczyk before the start of this year’s edition of the festival.
The fantasy and magical vibe has also been preserved in the light arrangement of the Collegium Minus UMK building. In the area near Rabaki Square, guests of the festival will also find arrangements “Harmony of Opposites” and “Żywioły”.
In the precinct of the Teutonic Knights castle, seven shows have been set up to play with light, music and new technologies. Warm Cold is video art on climate change. “The Roles of Bees” is an installation that aims to remind us of the role that bees play in our environment and our daily lives. Combining 2D and 3D animation is an idea to show the human being as part of the universe, which was realized by fourth year students in Media Arts and Visual Education from the Department of Media at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Nicolas Copernicus University.
The installations created in Valley of Dreams form a completely separate festival space. They were all based on the concept of a magical garden. The projections created there to highlight the beauty of nature and take hikers in the middle of the Polish forests.
