The Sedona Northern Lights show will be returning to present the largest 3D mapping ever on a natural landscape in the United States on the side of Camelhead Rock at the top of the hour at 6, 7, 8 and 9 p.m. from Thursday, Dec. 13, through Sunday, Dec. 16.
The show is a joint presentation by the city of Sedona and the Sedona Chamber of Commerce & Tourism Bureau.
We encourage all our residents to make time to go see the show sometime over this weekend. The presentation is a rare chance to see a dramatic light show on the side of a cliff that overlooks Uptown.
For longtime and new residents alike, the show offers a rare opportunity to see the familiar rock formation come alive at night in a whole new light — literally.
PaintScaping crews have been aligning the 12 massive projectors so the shows can go off without any hitches. The projectors are not simply blasting a flat image onto the rocks as if it were like a movie screen, but are taking into account the curves, crevices and outcroppings on the cliffs. Thus, light aimed at a concavity is transmitted from one projector a hundreth of a second before light from another projector hitting a protrusion, so that the final image is in sync and aligned perfectly for viewers.
PaintScaping debuted the shows last year and thousands of residents and visitors witnessed the light playing on the rock face.
While the overall show was impressive, some of the aspects of last year’s performance were a little odd, but this year’s show has been revamped to be more focused on the Christmas theme. The portion of the show in which Camelhead Rock turned tropical and spouted waterfalls and the part when Santa and the reindeer burst from “holes” in the rock face only to dive back in were pretty impressive, especially with the “shadows” from the sleigh and reindeer enhancing the effect.
Prior to Sedona, PaintScaping had already done work similar to this, projecting shows onto the ski slopes of Big Sky Resort in Montana for the Samuel Adams brewing company as well as smaller projects on buildings in Orlando, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York, Chicago and Cochella, Calif.
Sedona hotels and resorts are booked up, even those across town far from the presentation site, with many visitors stating to hotel staffers that they are in town exclusively for the show.
Hopefully, they will stay more than just one night, taking advantage of local restaurants and retail shops, contributing to economy just before the end of the holidays.
These tourist visits come at a time of year when the city is historically slow, adding sales tax revenue to the city’s coffers right before the end of the calendar year.
According to a survey conducted after last-year’s show, Uptown merchants and sponsors told the chamber they saw a 15- to 25-percent increase in sales during the four-day span last year compared to that same week in 2016. Hotel occupancy was also up by 12 percent, adding bed taxes to the city’s budget.
Do something a little out of step this weekend and schedule a time to catch the show around plans for dinner or a night out on the town.
Don’t let the naysayers stop you from seeing the show. The light show only lasts for nine minutes, far less time than if an Arizona Department of Public Safety helicopter was searching for a stranded climber on a cliff face or a hiker on a trail.
The show will be projected on the side of a cliff face on the edge of the city where no large animals make their home. The Red Rock Ranger District wildlife biologist did not feel that the temporary nature of the lights would have any significant effects on any roosting or hibernating animals, and there are no threatened or endangered species in that area.
Sedona also won’t lose its International Dark-Sky Association certification for a short performance celebrating the holidays.
We will do our best to capture the show for our print and online readers in case you’re out of town. But if you’re here, there are dozens of locations from Uptown to Gallery Row, as well as a few points in West Sedona that oversee Camelhead Rock.
Tune your radios to KAZM 780AM for music to accompany the light show. Music will also be broadcast at some of the selected viewing areas.
Whether you saw it or missed it last year, come out and see the show this week.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
