Instead of night-time pyrotechnics, the centrepiece of the festival will be a large-scale projection beamed on to the facade of St Paul’s Cathedral.
Carnival Trust chairman Paul Smith said that growth in numbers of festival-goers meant fireworks were no longer tenable from a safety perspective.
The projection would be spectacular and open up new creative avenues for the carnival team to explore, he said.
It was being designed by the team of 3-D animator Oana Jones and visual effects artist Paul Jones.
The husband and wife team were tight-lipped about the details of the animation they were creating to keep an element of surprise for the audience.
However, Ms Jones said one part of the concept involved turning the entire front of the cathedral into a lantern.
The projection would be backed by a performance by the St Paul’s Cathedral choir.
Other elements of the festival were due to expand. Festival event manager Jonathan Cweorth said the first block of George St would host a night market with "more stores than ever before’’.
There were also going to be four times as many lantern installations in the Octagon compared with their previous biggest display.
"[We will be] giving people more opportunities to enjoy them up close, and not just as they go past in the procession.’’
Festival technical manager Keir Russell said previous fireworks displays had needed large exclusion zones for safety, and these areas were now available for festival activities.
The lower half of the Octagon would be used exclusively for children’s entertainment, with science shows, lantern-making workshops and a merry-go-round.
The festival is set to run from 3pm until 8.30pm on June 26, with the procession starting at 6pm at First Church.
- By Andrew Marshall
