The 475th anniversary of Guadalajara will be celebrated in major style with GDLUZ, a dazzling five-day “light and entertainment” spectacle covering a significant section of the downtown core.
Each evening between 6:30 and 10:30 p.m., from February 14 to 18, the major buildings and monuments in the city center, including the Teatro Degollado, Plaza Fundadores, the Cathedral, Rotunda of Illustrious Citizens, Plaza Tapatía and Instituto Cultural Cabañas, will be illuminated with state-of-the-art mapping technology, accompanied by live musical performances and other audiovisual wizardry.
“We want to turn our historic center a a theme park inspired by light,” said Marcos Jiménez, the creative coordinator of the event. “Not only will this be the biggest light festival ever held in Mexico but in all of Latin America,” he boasted.
The event will feature 1.2 kilometers of “audiovisual installations” running from the Degollado to the Cabañas. According to Jiménez, as well as the video mapping, there will be “neon light performances, synchronized pyrotechnics, dancing fountains, illuminated balls and giant faces.” Each evening, 2,000 “interactive bracelets” will be distributed to the public, he said.
Guadalajara City Hall will pay for around a quarter of the estimated 22-million-peso cost of staging the festival, while the remainder will come from private sponsors.
Mayor Enrique Alfaro expects around 300,000 people to view the extravaganza over the five days and spend at least that amount.
Repeat stagings of the show will be scheduled at later dates on Avenida Chapultepec, as well as in Zapopan, Tonala, Tlaquepaque and Tlajomulco.
The show is simular to ones staged previously in other major cities, including Sydney, Australia; Lyon, France; London, England; Amsterdam, Holland and Kobe, Japan.
Guadalajara’s anniversary falls on Tuesday, February 14
For further details, see www.gdluz.mx.