The Lumina night walk turns five
June 14th, 2019
Around this time five years ago, Moment Factory was getting ready to reveal a bold new experiment: a multimedia night walk set in the woods of Parc de la Gorge in Coaticook, Quebec. We called this original outdoor experience Foresta Lumina. At the time, we didn’t know how people would respond to our creation, a series of storytelling vignettes staged along a pedestrian pathway using lighting design, music, video, and special effects.
The reaction to the first-ever Lumina enchanted night walk exceeded even our wildest hopes. It surpassed its projected visitorship by tenfold, produced a financial windfall for the park and surrounding community, and won a slew of industry awards, including a prestigious THEA. Since then, we’ve created ten distinct Lumina night walk experiences in sites ranging from Canada to Japan and Singapore, which have together welcomed more than a million visitors.
This multimedia night walk format has found homes around the world, from the Canadian wilderness to Asian Megacities, and each unique addition is nuanced by a distinctive regional flavour. What began as a flash of inspiration, an intuition of the possibilities in bringing a multimedia, light, and sound experience to nature at night, has come to define a new path for experiential entertainment.
Our celebration of this landmark anniversary is amplified as audiences discover and return to the whole series of Lumina night walk experiences. The summer season is kicking off at Lumina night walks around the world, and in July we welcome the latest iteration of our signature series, which explores new forms of interactive storytelling.
Four Lumina night walks across Quebec — Foresta Lumina, Chandler’s Nova Lumina, Anima Lumina in St-Félicien, and Tonga Lumina at Mont Tremblant — reopen in June, while Whistler, BC’s Vallea Lumina starts full-time the same month. A re-energized version of Singapore’s Rainforest Lumina will also be unveiled in June, featuring playful new zones starring its animal icons, the Creature Crew.
Last but not least, in July we inaugurate a new night walk called Kamuy Lumina. It’s our third Lumina experience in Japan, created in Hokkaido’s Akan National Park in close collaboration with the northern island’s Ainu people. This innovative experience invites visitors into a world of woodland spirits to engage with ancient legends on an interactive musical journey.
For us, the true measure of any of our experiences is the potential for connection it creates. Our approach is driven by a recognition of the profound human desire to gather and share stories and ideas, to disconnect from our small personal screens and reconnect with the natural world and with each other. Like a digital campfire, the Lumina night walk offers a place where we can meet and to discover a new and magical world, together.
The complete Lumina enchanted night walk series:
Foresta Lumina, Coaticook, QC, Canada (2014)
Nova Lumina in Chandler, QC, Canada (2016)
Anima Lumina in St-Félicien, QC, Canada (2016)
Lumina Borealis in Kingston, ON, Canada (2016)
Tonga Lumina in Mont Tremblant, QC, Canada (2017)
Vallea Lumina in Whistler, BC, Canada (2018)
Rainforest Lumina in Singapore (2018)
Sakuya Lumina in Osaka, Japan (2018)
Island Lumina in Iojima, Japan (2018)
Kamuy Lumina in Lake Akan, Japan (2019)
Made possible thanks to the support of Creative Export Canada from Heritage Canada.