DAE created and delivered the largest and most complex multimedia show in world history for the Opening Ceremony of the largest ever World Expo.
Elegantly weaving Chinese music, art and history together, we designed a true extravaganza to tell the story of China, and Shanghai, to the world.
Chinese symbols of welcome and good fortune were used thematically via colour, visual puns and auspicious shapes, giving the fireworks and lasers a cultural component. From music inspired by Chinese cultural festivals and China’s most famous love story, to costumes and narrative traditions, this incredible show welcomed the world, inviting everyone to come together in peace to celebrate.
The 30-minute Ceremony pushed the boundaries of spectacle by cleverly integrating fireworks, sound and light, with numerous scenic and technical elements such as mobile fountains, lasers, projections, and a flotilla of colourful boats travelling along the river, not to mention the world’s largest LED screen (over 280 m long x 33 m high) and searchlight installation with 1,200 individual lights illuminating the skies above Shanghai.
Rounding out the world-firsts, the show even brought together 16 of the world’s most powerful lasers and launched 60,000 individual fireworks with 200,000 individual pyrotechnic effects.
This breathtaking feat – complex, record-breaking, uniquely Chinese, yet globally oriented – was created in just four months.
