Lighting design for Guangzhou Chimelong float parade

Guangdong Chimelong Group Co., Ltd. is a company integrating theme park, hotel, catering, entertainment and leisure operations. It was founded in Guangzhou in 1989 and is a leading local group enterprise in China's tourism industry. Guangzhou Chimelong Paradise officially opened in April 2006 and will have been in operation for 20 years by April 2026.

The beautiful memories that once left the audience born in the 70s, 80s and 90s spanning 30 years have now been comprehensively upgraded by Guangzhou Chimelong with a more creative and energetic attitude.

In 2020, Chimelong Paradise has carried out innovative upgrades in three aspects: super performing arts, amusement facilities and catering supporting services. Among them, six new theme areas, two major performing arts plazas, new floats and parade routes have been created. Among them, the float parade is an important upgraded engine part that connects the entire joyful world. The new tour route circles Chimelong Paradise, starting from the Super Performing Arts Plaza and ending at the original point, with a total length of 1.6 kilometers.

The overall floor plan and the parade route can be seen in series. Chimelong Paradise has reshaped and created six major theme areas: Jungle Adventure, Rhythm World, Happy Carnival, Star Dream Garden, Touching Space, and Scream Zone. The six theme areas have strengthened the performing arts elements, introduced parent-child entertainment projects, and upgraded the viewing experience.

The entire game experience is constructed through different partition scenes. The lighting design is not a single point superimposition, but a continuous layout along the line, progressing according to rhythm and logic. The night cruise creates a warm and joyful atmosphere with bright lights and exciting performances, and is committed to creating a fun and dreamy world-class night cruise experience for tourists.

Among them, the "Carnival·European Style Parade" uses lighting as the core expression carrier, deeply integrating music rhythm, parade theme shapes and light and shadow, breaking through the traditional hanging tree lighting form, and using dynamic interactive lights to connect the parade queues, which greatly enriches the space expression and audience participation.

It can be seen that the lighting design of the float parade is different from the traditional lighting design. It needs to be completely constructed from six major points: overall strategy, float system, parade route, audience interaction, technical structure and operational dimensions, which is the basis for this type of lighting design.

Combining the operational attributes and customer base structure of Guangzhou Chimelong Paradise, we positioned the core of the float parade lighting as: a mobile immersive experience system that uses lighting as the narrative language.

Clear narrative: Lighting should help the audience “understand” the characters and emotions of each float.

Controllable rhythm: The lighting rhythm serves the emotional curve of the entire parade route.

Highly interactive: the audience is no longer a bystander, but a part of the scene.

A float is not an isolated lighting device, but a continuous sequence of light and shadow. Therefore, the floats and performance subjects of the float parade are always the visual core, and cannot be put before the cart and overshadowed by the guest. Therefore, nighttime floats must have strong recognition and memory points.

In terms of space creation, Guangzhou Chimelong has dense vegetation and superior natural conditions, so the vegetation on the cruising roads has become an important characteristic element in the expression of space lighting; at the same time, architectural packaging and equipment are also important participants in creating space lighting, thus forming a continuous spatial connection and visual continuity at night.

The two major performing arts plazas, the Super Performing Arts Plaza and the Central Performing Arts Plaza, will also occupy the "C position" of Chimelong Paradise in the future. They are also important nodes for the float parade, where the parade will stop for performances. Among them, the Super Performing Arts Plaza is the largest performing arts plaza in the park. The main stage design is unique. The center stage of the square adopts a lifting design and can be connected with the main stage. It is equipped with fountains, lights, flames and other special effects to bring visitors an immersive experience.

At the operational level, the project focuses on enhancing visitors’ sense of participation, activating the on-site atmosphere through interaction between NPCs and the audience, distribution of props, invitations to dance, etc. Lighting provides core support for the interactive experience.

The scene lighting changes and light color conversion are related to the music rhythm and performance process, so that the lights, music, and performance movements resonate at the same frequency. From the opening foreshadowing, the midfield advancement to the climax detonation, the entire process is presented collaboratively. Therefore, in order to cooperate with the parade, the sound system was also designed by our team.

Chimelong Group has always been committed to providing joyful experiences, adhering to innovative amusement park concepts, and striving to create internet celebrity check-in spots favored by young people; at the same time, it actively deploys the nighttime cultural tourism economy, closely follows new trends and new needs in tourism consumption, and injects new momentum into the high-quality development of the cultural tourism industry. In the long-term companionship and cooperation, we closely follow the market trends and the pace of entertainment product upgrades, continue to optimize and adjust, and tell the story of light and shadow well.

In this project, we treat the entire parade route as a "light theater", using light to give the scene emotions, and coordinate with the rhythm and performance of the parade. Sometimes it creates a sense of ritual and expectation, arousing the audience's expectations; sometimes it creates an immersive atmosphere and strengthens the sense of participation of tourists; in the stopover and important node areas, the light accurately drives the mood to rise, pushing the event to a climax.

At the same time, operational needs must be taken into consideration. It is necessary to fully understand the core intentions of the project operator in the early stage, and set aside constraints to adapt to the multi-scene operation mode during the design stage to improve the compatibility and scalability of lighting without losing the core requirement of precise control. We usually go back to the operator to confirm key questions: How many days does the parade run in a year? Is it allowed to change the theme partially? Are there plans for IP upgrades or plot iterations in the future? Thinking and designing with the answers will be more practical and feasible.

The lighting of the Chimelong float parade was an exploration and challenge for the Amote team, and in the end we achieved the desired effect. Let the floats transform into characters with stories, let the lights have emotions, build a light and shadow experience with both spatial hierarchy and line rhythm, and light up the hearts of every visitor. The float parade moves forward, and the lights tell stories synchronously, allowing every visitor to truly enter this dream narrative.

In the era of social media, the most cost-effective promotion method is to maximize tourists' desire to share through high-quality products, so that every tourist who comes to visit becomes a brand spokesperson. This is also in line with the upgrading trend of the cultural tourism industry, stimulating urban consumption and bringing new travel experiences to tourists from all walks of life. Guangzhou Chimelong will continue to promote the high-quality development of Guangzhou’s tourism industry and continue to strive to build Guangzhou into a world-class tourist destination.

Editor: Yan Zhixiang