Today, we’re stepping into one of the UK’s most magical winter experiences, Windsor Great Park Illuminated. The 2.2-kilometre light trail has become a seasonal staple, drawing families, superfans and experience-seekers from across the country. And this year? It’s bigger, bolder and brighter than ever. Paul Marden is on site wandering through the woods with the masterminds behind the magic- Rob Paul, Design Director at LCI Productions, and Kathryn Stafford, Senior Events Manager at IMG Events. Together, they reinvent this trail every single year, creating original IP, sculpting a festive narrative through light and sound, and using AV tech to bring an entire forest to life. I’m here to find out how they build an experience that keeps visitors coming back year after year. Let’s get into it…
Step into the woods with us for a behind-the-scenes look at one of the UK’s most iconic winter light trails: Windsor Great Park Illuminated.
In this episode of Skip the Queue, Paul Marden is joined on-site by Rob Paul, Design Director at LCI Productions, and Kathryn Stafford, Senior Events Manager at IMG Events, to discuss how this 2.2km light trail continues to evolve, surprise and delight hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
Rob and Kathryn reveal how they transform a natural woodland into a breathtaking immersive world — all while protecting wildlife and crafting stories that keep guests coming back year after year.
You’ll discover:
Show References:
Windsor Great Park Illuminated
Rob Paul - Design Director, LCI Productions
Kathryn Stafford - Senior Events Manager, IMG Events / PWR
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Paul Marden: Welcome to Skip the Queue, the podcast telling the storey of the world's best visitor attractions and the amazing people who work in them. I'm your host, Paul Marden, and for today's special festive edition,
I'm on a family trip with Team Marden, with Jo and Amelia, my wife and daughter. Today we're stepping into one of the UK's most magical winter experiences. Windsor Great Park Illuminated. The 2.2 kilometre light trail has become a seasonal staple, drawing families, superfans and experienced seekers from across the country, and each even across the globe. And this year, it's bigger, bolder and brighter than ever. Millie, Jo and I are on site wandering through the woods with the masterminds behind the magic. Rob, Paul, the design director at LCI Productions, and Catherine Stafford, the senior events manager at IMG Events.
Paul Marden: Together they reinvent this trail every single year, creating original ip, sculpting a festive narrative through light and sound, and using AV tech to bring an entire forest to life. I'm here to find out how they build an experience that keeps visitors coming back year after year. So let's get into it. We are wandering through. We're heading towards the Windsor Express at the moment. Down the pathway in front of us, we've got an amazing lit train. Should we start with our first question? Amelia, you've got some icebreakers, don't you? We always ask our guests icebreakers to try and get you into the mood. So what's our first icebreaker meal?
Amelia Marden: What's your favourite animal that we see at the Great Windsor Park? It's got to be the wolf.
Paul Marden: Oh, are we gonna see some wolves?
Kathryn Stafford: We're gonna see a pretty impressive wolf.
Paul Marden: Oh, my God.
Kathryn Stafford: I love, like the darker, like the more horry scary side of the. Of the features. They're the ones that I really like and he's definitely got. He's quite intimidating.
Paul Marden: What's your next one? Meal. Maybe this one can be for Rob.
Amelia Marden: What's the most unexpected thing you've had to put a light on?
Rob Paul: Oh, unex. The thing I've had to put a light on. Goodness.
Paul Marden: I think the second part to that question was things that you wouldn't expect to have to light up in your life.
Rob Paul: Well, this is all unexpected.
Paul Marden: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's quite an strange experience for us as a family because we wander around the park. We used to be members when we lived up here. It is completely transformed. So to see it at night, I vaguely know where I am, but it is. It's a topsy turvy. World. It's almost a Stranger Things kind of experience. It's not. It's the same. Yeah, but not quite.
Kathryn Stafford: We've got a bit of Stranger Things.
Paul Marden: Oh, have you?
Rob Paul: It's a bit of a vibe.
Paul Marden: And what's your final question then, Amelia?
Amelia Marden: What's your favourite bit of a Christmas dinner?
Rob Paul: I'm gonna go with Christmas pudding.
Paul Marden: Oh, Christmas pudding. Oh, controversial.
Kathryn Stafford: That is. Right. Oh, roast potatoes and gravy. Can I do a little side. Have a little side on that?
Paul Marden: If I had roast potatoes, gravy and stuff, I'd be happy. I don't need the rest of it.
Kathryn Stafford: Yeah, yeah.
Paul Marden: Thank you very much, Amelia, as we come up to the Windsor Express. So this is my first time on the trail here, but this is not your first time of organising the trail here at Windsor, is it? So what's new about the light trail this year?
Kathryn Stafford: So we change up the trail every year. This year, I think we've got anything repeated, and if we have got a feature that's repeated, it's been uplifted, so it's got new elements attached to it and it's got better design. Everything this year is new.
Paul Marden: It's brand new.
Rob Paul: Well, everything is new. So there's more features this year than we've done in previous years. And the features are sort of upscaled on previous years.
Paul Marden: Light trails like this are a bit of an arms race, aren't they? Because lots of attractions do them now and. And you have to have something new, you have to have something unique, don't you? Because otherwise, you know, you're not going to get that repeat footfall, are you?
Kathryn Stafford: Yeah, exactly.
Rob Paul: There's interesting things in some of the features. Like one of the features is the. Right, at the end of the trail is the talking tree.
Paul Marden: Right.
Rob Paul: And he's. And this thing, it's the kind of staples that we need to keep, that people will get upset if they decide.
Paul Marden: Yeah, okay.
Rob Paul: And there's other things that. So you need to grow it, but maintain some of it.
Paul Marden: Yeah. So it's really a sense of familiarity.
Rob Paul: Exactly. And then, you know, my niece has seen it since she was 4 years old. If he wasn't there, she could get upset.
Paul Marden: Yes.
Kathryn Stafford: Rob says this. I tried. We do. We've got him. He's called Douglas Fir, who says goodbye at the end. Thank you for coming. And actually, this year I thought, oh, maybe we could, like, reallocate that budget. And then the looks that I got from the team and from Rob. Doug. How dare you take away Doug.
Paul Marden: You're not doing that. Yeah, yeah. Doug's a star. You can't take Doug away from people.
Kathryn Stafford: You watch the kids at the end and then you hear them say, oh, there he is, there's the tree. So, yeah, it's become part of people's expectations now.
Windsor Light: I am 500 years old.
Paul Marden: Considering it's a light trail, it's proving quite difficult for me to be able to read my questions. So from a design's perspective, then, what's really pushed the boundaries this year?
Kathryn Stafford: Everything. Well, in terms of, like, the creative ideas and then pushing the boundary of the tech, of there's an idea that comes up and then I'll go to Rob and go, is there any way that we can make this work? Like, as ridiculous as it might be? And then Rob will go away and be like, okay, how do we do this?
Paul Marden: There's no answer is a no, is there? There's never enough.
Rob Paul: Yeah, there's always a way. Yeah, there's always a way. You know, might be slightly different, but there's always a way. And so this year we've got new tech that hasn't been seen before anywhere on a light trail. Well, you'll see him later. There's an outdoor snowman, which is a two 3D spheres as a character piece. Hasn't been done before. And as we said earlier that some of the features are expanded on where they were before. So where it might have been a singular piece of tech, we've got combinations of holofans and light balls and fibre wraps. On what's a holofan, you'll see one.
Paul Marden: Okay, I'm gonna see. But of course, the listeners aren't, so give us a little bit of effort.
Rob Paul: So holofan technology is basically. It looks a bit like a propeller that's spinning and through like a persistence of vision effects, you get a full image that you see in front of it and it creates kind of like a hologram look.
Paul Marden: I know what you mean.
Kathryn Stafford: It looks real. It's part of the magic, is what that means.
Rob Paul: It's all magic. Sorry, there's no technology. I only work in magic.
Paul Marden: Exactly, exactly. So we are. We're in a quite dark part of the forest on the trail at the moment, but we are walking into a beautiful laser. Laser area. Is this laser technology?
Rob Paul: Magic lasers.
Paul Marden: Absolutely, absolutely. So we could talk a lot about the tech and what's new in the tech, but what about the narrative elements of this? Because this isn't just a. It's not meant to be just pure tech on show. To just wow you, Is it? There's a storytelling technique that you're using throughout this?
Kathryn Stafford: Yes. In terms of the storytelling, we trialled it in year two with a lot of the mythical side, with the fairies and storytelling about fairies getting ready to go to a disco. And in reading feedback over the last couple of years, because I do, I drudge through all the feedback that people write and what people remember are these storytelling moments and these things that people watch and people, the things that are immersed in, they're what they remember. So reading all that feedback, you're like, right, that's what we need to bring back and that's what we need to really develop on.
Paul Marden: After walking through all of that darkness, this is quite a challenge to the senses, isn't it?
Kathryn Stafford: And this is one of the sort of lowest, slower moments, like with the hands in the music as well, a bit more reflective. And then you move into some silly, ridiculous Santa stuff later on.
Rob Paul: So it's that kind of immersive spectacle pieces like this which really affect you. But it is, as Kat was saying, it's the ip, the character pieces that a lot of people remember afterwards. So it's just trying to get that balance of those two.
Paul Marden: You have to have an ebb and a flow, don't you? It's like classic storytelling techniques, you know, it can't all be passion and your heart thumping through your chest. You do need some calm. You do need the music and it's just amazing.
Kathryn Stafford: Yeah, it's that journey, isn't it, of the highs and the lows. And we tease people as well, because we're lucky. And we use LCI only throughout the whole trail. We tease people as they approach features, so you might hear something or you might see something. Like, we've got as you approach, because we've brought the pyramid stage to Windsor. But before you see any of that, you see a badger, security guards, like, checking tickets on a holofan magic. And so you're like, oh, what is this? Coming up, what's happening here? So we tease people on the approach to the features as well. But we're lucky in that because we do the whole lci, do the whole thing. We have that opportunity to really think about each other.
Kathryn Stafford: The sections in between each feature as well, to really bring that storey and excitement and almost like shock as you turn a corner. You're like, oh, I wasn't expecting that.
Paul Marden: So is that unusual, then, to work with one partner for the tech? I guess if you're working with other partners, there's a collaboration Opportunity to get different ideas. But then I guess if you're working with one partner, there's almost a purity, a clarity of the vision and the ability to be able to work together on stuff.
Kathryn Stafford: Yes, exactly. Because I've been diving to many light trails and a lot of them are. They're a mixture of different designers with show art pieces and in between the features it's just a walkthrough. Whereas with us we're really thinking about how the colours of the general lighting are changing between each feature. What, the fairy lights that change colour so you really get that mood setting change and you're thinking about every little detail rather than just. Right, that piece of artwork goes there, that piece goes there. And I'm sure they do more than that.
Paul Marden: Of course.
Kathryn Stafford: Does Faridge any other light trail. But we are unique in how it is fully comes together.
Paul Marden: I didn't wear my wellies and I'm beginning to regret.
Kathryn Stafford: I know you're trainers.
Paul Marden: That is schoolboy era. So how long does it take you to put together something like this? This is not let's get this together in October, is it? Let's be honest, this is taking quite some planning to put together a spectacular like this.
Rob Paul: Yeah. So we. I mean we sort of. We started talking about ideas. Well, we start talking about. Because it's been going on year, we start talking about ideas now for the following year.
Paul Marden: Yes.
Rob Paul: But. Yeah, so it's generally starting talking about ideas in this sort of. March, April. Yeah. And then.
Paul Marden: Oh, sorry, I'd love to listen to you, but we've just arrived at Virginia Water with the most amazing.
Rob Paul: So this is a contemporary art piece which is a water screen with rear projection onto it and we've created kind of a mosaic effect which makes a real kind of 3D visual projecting across the water so it looks like a floating hologram on the water.
Paul Marden: So what, we've got some sort of sprayer at the middle, putting all the spray in there.
Rob Paul: Yeah. So you've got a. There's a 30 metre wide water screen and you can see the projectile down the far bank.
Kathryn Stafford: Yeah.
Paul Marden: And then all of the trees are lit up. We can still see the big wheel in the background. And is that the other side of the trail over there? So are we circling the lake on the whole trail?
Rob Paul: Pretty much, yeah.
Paul Marden: That's just amazing.
Rob Paul: This is all done by the in house LCI creative department.
Paul Marden: Right. It's feeling a bit Doctor who from the 60s, isn't it?
Kathryn Stafford: At the moment it's quite different to the rest the of trail, this wooden peak.
Paul Marden: Amazing. So as I just mentioned in my trainers, we are walking through a woodland. Yeah. It is fairly, you know, uneven terrain. We've got lots of wildlife in the park, haven't we? So from that perspective, Rob. What the challenges that you've got to. Installing something like this in a situation like this, in an environment like this.
Rob Paul: So yes, there's the wildlife, but there's also the human life. Because while we're installing, the park is fully open to the public. It's not a closed site. And also the public here bring a lot of dogs down for walks as well and lovely people. But of course we do need to be careful about how we're working because we're basically working around the general public while we build the trail.
Paul Marden: Health and safety nightmare there, isn't it?
Rob Paul: Just need to just be careful about how we do that and careful of our two legged friends and four legged friends during the build. But I mean the geography of the site is presents challenges, but opportunities as well because we need to think about how we can integrate the concepts that we're talking about into the space so that they're enhanced by it rather than being detracted by it.
Paul Marden: Oh, wow, Sorry. We've just come across our first holograms. Holo fans.
Kathryn Stafford: Yeah.
Paul Marden: So we've got some elves playing a snowball fight on our hollow fans. Honey in the trees at the moment. So all of this you're putting up whilst people are walking their dogs around.
Rob Paul: You. That's right. We're trying, obviously we're trying to close off areas as little as possible, but something like this will close this bit of the path. While we're getting the fans up.
Kathryn Stafford: It's a daily struggle of moving fence and closing things off, stopping the public with a deadline of getting the show open.
Paul Marden: So you are reinventing the trail every year with brand new IP. Where'd you get the ideas from?
Kathryn Stafford: Yeah, that's a good question, to be honest. Anything when you know you've got to do, you've got to completely have new ideas for the following year. You're inspired by everything like you're always looking for. Anything can inspire like even a reflection in like a bauble or something. Like in the summer I often spend my time listening to Christmas music and being like, oh, what could that. How would that work with something? It's. Yeah, it takes a lot of headbanging together and brainstorming and also think about what kit we can use and.
Paul Marden: And are you going, are You. Are you taking inspiration from other people? Are you going taking inspiration from everything?
Rob Paul: I think you're taking inspiration from, you know, from all. All culture. So, you know, whether it's films, special effects.
Paul Marden: Yes.
Rob Paul: Other lighting trails, other lighting designers looking at what's. What's out there in the world and, you know, how can we develop our own twist, you know, take that. Take that idea further within, obviously, limitations of what? You know, working outdoors, working with, you know, economics to a certain extent as to what we're able to do. Yeah. To get something up that's effective. So it is like looking at the design and thinking, how do we get this into this. This woodland and make it work for the guests?
Kathryn Stafford: Yeah. And it's also. Any idea, any ridiculous idea, anything fun, anything dramatic. It's like things that are unique and have never been seen before. And even if that is a brainchild of ours, just go, oh, but that could really. That could be really fun or dramatic or it's making sure it's different to the other light trails and fun.
Paul Marden: Am I right in thinking this is a team sport? So you get that creativity from all of the team coming up with ideas and you're bouncing ideas off of one another. Oh, there was a big puddle.
Kathryn Stafford: Oh no.
Rob Paul: But, yeah, that's the. That's the. The. The. I suppose that's the process between LCI and PWI and G, that we're. They're coming up with ideas for us. We're coming up with ideas for them.
Rob Paul: And then that evolves through the year until we kind of finalise on what we all want it to be. I hope you been a good cat this.
Paul Marden: Year. So to what extent are you working with. The. The team that organised the great park? So the management of the park.
Kathryn Stafford: Itself and of the gardens, do you know what they've been. They're the best venue that I've ever worked with from working in events.
Paul Marden: Really.
Kathryn Stafford: Yeah. They're brilliant. We do bounce ideas off them and what we could do, but they. To be honest, they do. They let us fly. I present him with the. With the crazy ideas, actually. Nick from Head of the Events. He's. He's also quite creative himself, so likes to add in the extra spin on things. So, yeah, it's collaborative as well, but they are brilliant in letting us kind of go with it.
Paul Marden: Oh Wow.
Kathryn Stafford: Here's your security.
Paul Marden: We're being checked by our security badger at the moment.
Kathryn Stafford: Yeah. So now you're entering into our festival in the park.
Paul Marden: That's amazing, isn't it.
Rob Paul: This was the evolution that with the, with light trails. But you know, quite often seen at light trails where people have put mirror balls into a forest.
Paul Marden: Yes.
Rob Paul: And so we took that, you know, at the start of that we made that year one, it was a fairy disco, so making it much more. And then it became an elf DJ last year and this year we've gone to a full on festival.
Kathryn Stafford: This is the one that everyone talks about. This is the area that we develop a lot every year because it seems to be the one that everyone remembers and all the feedback, we can't wait to dance in the forest again.
Paul Marden: Oh Really?
Rob Paul: Yeah, it's just, yeah, it's just taking it to a different level.
Kathryn Stafford: I love it.
Paul Marden: I don't want to spoil this for our guests if you come, but I am genuinely at the pyramid stage right now. Guys. This is hugely creative exercise, isn't it? What is it about the creative process of doing this that you enjoy the most? Which part of the creativity is it? Is it a build? Is it the original idea?
Kathryn Stafford: I love it that we can do it, if I'm honest. Because when an idea comes up it's like, oh, what if we make. We do animals? Take the stage that live in the park. Why don't we make a pyramid stage? And then you take that to the bosses and then. And they're like, oh, yeah, go on then, do it. And you're like, yes, you've got it through. So it's like it's coming up with those ideas and being like, right, how can we actually make this work? Are we allowed to do it? Is it too wild? I love that area of coming up with the initial ideas.
Paul Marden: What about you Rob?
Rob Paul: Well, I do like problem solving. Okay, that's a good job. Because I get the feeling that's part of this partnership. You come up with crazy ideas and you fix the problem. Don't come to me with cropping floss, just come to me with sleechers.
Kathryn Stafford: I don't want to hear that you can't do it Rob. But in terms of also, like, favourite bit of the creativity process is that it's definitely the build. Yeah, yeah. And actually seeing it come together, like we always say to Rob, oh, have you done it yet? Why isn't it ready yet?
Paul Marden: What is every good creative, you come up with the ideas. When am I going to get this? Yeah, yeah, exactly. So are you and the crew a good indicator of what a. What is going to be successful?
Because I know I sometimes struggle because what I think will be cool. What I think will be amazing is not necessarily what everybody else. What the user's experience will actually turn out like, but do you have a. Do you guys have a strong feel for what's going to work and what isn't, or do you get surprised?
Rob Paul: I think so. I think some things. I know what you're saying. You can sort of imagine a concept and you actually get. Take it to delivery and go.
Paul Marden: Oh, that's not what I was thinking.
Rob Paul: That's not what I was thinking. But generally with this, there's a few things where I don't think there's anything where we thought, oh. It'S not as good as I want it. But there's a few things where you thought, actually, that's worked out better than we thought in terms of the concept.
Kathryn Stafford: Yeah. There's always some surprises. Actually. We're approaching one now..
Rob Paul: Yeah.
Kathryn Stafford: Yeah. We've got some lasers that. Going across the floor and it. It was one. We were.
Rob Paul: We were, you know, sort of unsure how well it would come out, but the design evolved a bit and we got the right tech in and I was worried about it working within this landscape, but actually, it's brilliant.
Rob Paul: And it's absolutely brilliant.
Paul Marden: We've got the old smoke machine going to give it some. And give it something to reflect on. Oh, it's beautiful. So multicoloured lasers.
Rob Paul: Multicoloured laser programmed to the music, chasing along. But it's. It's. You kind of feel like you're sort of lost on the floor. You're not quite sure.
Paul Marden: And it's very organic, isn't it, because you've got smoke moving through it, so you've got the constant movement of it.
Kathryn Stafford: This one's brilliant. If you watch the dogs as well, they're like. They don't know what to do with themselves and their legs are all Akimbo.
Rob Paul: Dogs and children, if you're a bit shorter as well, it's quite, you know, it's quite a thing.
Kathryn Stafford: I saw one dog, like, desperate to escape. He couldn't cope with it.
Paul Marden: We've got these really big hitting moments of, like, the pyramid stage. Real, real energy. That iconic instagrammable moment. But what are you doing in terms of the narrative and the way that you're leading people through the story? What are you doing? So that those impactful moments remain impactful, but there's some light and shade.
Rob Paul: I'd like to say all of it's impactful. It's how it impacts you. So you can take a sort of big, wow, loud, exciting moment. Like the. The pyramid stage.
Paul Marden: Yes.
Rob Paul: But then you can also take something like the lanterns, which is very much an Instagrammable moment. And it's a much simpler form of tech and it's just the beauty of how that piece is created. And what's really interesting is the tech is simple, but setting it up and the sort of interest and passion that came from the crew and everybody involved in creating that, I've never seen so much interest in something that it seems relatively simple. But people love it. They really love it.
Paul Marden: And the crew is really getting into it. In spite of the fact this is not the most leading edge technology.
Rob Paul: Exactly. You're hanging 500 lanterns.
Kathryn Stafford: My crew chief called was. He's brilliant. He's been with us for the last five years. He calls it every year. He says it's going to be the lanterns and it's going to be the rings, which are two quiet moments. And he was bang on.
Paul Marden: Kat, you get some really strong repeat visitation here, don't you? What do you think is getting people to come back time and time again?
Kathryn Stafford: I think it's become people's traditions now. So we're in our fifth year, it's in people's calendars now and it's become their tradition, their family tradition and that's what we're seeing. And plus, as we've been talking about, we change everything every year and if we didn't, then I don't think we would have that repeat visitation. And we really look into the feedback and what people want to see and like play on that. We want people to give us feedback. Let's go. Right, okay. What is it you guys want to see?
Paul Marden: Absolutely. So powerful. Just for everybody that heard the sound effects, it wasn't me and cats. It was. It was in fact a stag, a lit up stag. We. I'm getting, dare I say it, Harry Potter vibes. Am I allowed to say that?
Kathryn Stafford: No. That's a good. Yeah, yeah. That's a good comparison. We'll take it. There's the wolf. Yeah. Isn't he great?
Paul Marden: It's beautiful.
Kathryn Stafford: And then we've got our Windsor stag.
Paul Marden: See, I was trying to set you up earlier on with your icebreaker question. What was your favourite animals that you'd see in the park? It had to be the Windsor stags, didn't it?
Kathryn Stafford: No, I went rogue. Sorry. I like the scary stuff. We do have two 8 metre high stags.
Rob Paul: Reindeers.
Kathryn Stafford: Reindeers. Sorry. Which are very impactful and they're to some very dramatic music as well.
Paul Marden: So. Wow.
Kathryn Stafford: They're also my second favourite.
Paul Marden: So we're walking through a glade of trees now with lights suspended, I don't know, eight feet up in the. In the trees and just beautiful colours.
Kathryn Stafford: Yeah. This was one of those unexpected ones again.
Paul Marden: Yeah. Yeah, I can. I can understand that.
Kathryn Stafford: It's a nice reflective moment.
Paul Marden: I can see. I can see how you're attaching. So these are circles that are wrapped around the trunks. I'm guessing you've got to do quite a lot of work to protect the trees to make sure. Sure that you don't do any damage whilst you're here.
Rob Paul: Yeah, that's right. So all of these are suspended from the trees, but what we do is we wrap them in a burlap first before we do any fixings to it. So there's no damage to the trees. And the rings themselves are very lightweight. There's not a lot of weight pulling on the poor tree.
Paul Marden: You couldn't have done this 15 years ago. This is reliant on LED technology, isn't it, to make it that lightweight?
Rob Paul: No, really, we just. We put them on the ground and waited for the trees to grow up.
Paul Marden: This is a long game then.
Rob Paul: It was. It was.
Kathryn Stafford: You know, people do want. Still want that Instagrammable moment. They want that picture. And I think most of the trail, their feature themselves are their Instagram moments. And we're adding in more things for. Because we allow dogs on the trail, which is. Which is quite unique. So we do a lot of things. You all come up to it after the lantern. So we do selfie moments for dogs as well. They've got bat wings, so it's those different, like little extra pieces as well.
Paul Marden: Look at this. This is beautiful. So we're in amongst the. The lanterns. So 500 lanterns in the trees and on the ground around here. And it is just stunning. Are you powering them with rechargeable batteries? Are you gonna have to go around every few hours and change the batteries on these bad boys.
Rob Paul: They last surprisingly well.
Paul Marden: They don't in our house.
Rob Paul: No. I mean, the most, actually, the. That we do have to change the batteries. But I think we're gonna have to change the batteries twice during the run.
Paul Marden: But fortunately, the other thing you haven't thought about is how do you turn them on or off?
Kathryn Stafford: Off.
Paul Marden: Have they got some sort of light sensor? So in the daytime this is all going to sleep.
Rob Paul: Has a remote control.
Kathryn Stafford: How are we going to Turn them all off. Yeah. Luckily we've got them all to turn off with one button. Otherwise it'd be hours.
Paul Marden: It wouldn't it? It really would flick each switch under the.
Kathryn Stafford: Just leave them on.
Paul Marden: So in a recent episode we've been talking about multi sensory. So we've been talking about how you can use smell, how you can use touch, how you can use sound to engender that emotion in people that you're trying to enrich the experience. Obviously sound is a really important part of this. It's not just the light trail. You've got that soundtrack track that's moving throughout. How do you do that?
Kathryn Stafford: Listening to hours of music.
Rob Paul: Really?
Kathryn Stafford: Yeah. If I've got a long journey. My parents have been talking so often, got a four hour journey torquay and just play Christmas music and just think about. Because at that point we've decided what the features are and then we go, right, okay, how do we want people to feel at this point? Is it nostalgia? Is it. What emotion do we want to create? Like for example, when we get to the 8 metre high div, we haven't gone Christmassy, but we've gone like powerful and like emotional. Dramatic. Yeah. So it's mixing as well, not all Christmas, but what that emotion is as well.
Rob Paul: And it's, I think, because the music, obviously, particularly if we're programming something that's dynamic in lighting, we need to have movement in the music, whereas obviously a quiet moment like the lanterns, we can have it quite gentle, but if you've got a drop down, a dramatic piece like the reindeer.
Paul Marden: ABBA can stay in the festival.
Rob Paul: I don't think they're quite right for the reindeer.
Kathryn Stafford: Do you spend a long time sending things to Rob going, what about this? Will this work? No, no, it's not.
Rob Paul: Obviously there's lots of great music out there, but it doesn't necessarily work in terms of programming a light show.
Paul Marden: What I've noticed as we've been going is that you've got quite a lot of pit stops as well, which is quite interesting. Is that something that has evolved over time as you realise that people have needed that break.
Kathryn Stafford: We're at the halfway point at the moment and we've developed this year with the huts we've brought in now and the fire pits are at the back there. And we've got photo moments up here as well. And we added in Christmas trees and the cold white lights, like only to a point, so you feel like you're encompassed within it. People love it up here and you are. You don't know where you are here. If you don't know the park, you actually. You feel a bit lost in the woods. So it's a real. People stay here and dwell for a long time. It's a nice, cosy feel.
Paul Marden: Yeah, it's got the. It's got the kind of mountaintop vibes, hasn't it? We've got our marshmallows, we've got our hot chocolate and some huts for you to keep warm in. So it's. Yeah, it's. It's just magical.
Paul Marden: Hello. So how do you maintain the excitement each season yourselves? Because obviously you need to love this and you need to be passionate about it for you to be able to find that creative spark.
Rob Paul: What's great in a light trail and especially with winter and what we've been able to do here, you know, obviously we work in permanent attractions as well, and the timeline for that can be quite slow in terms of delivery. Whereas here, every year, we get.
Paul Marden: To try the same time every year.
Rob Paul: Well, it's true, but it means we get to try new stuff, new ideas, new concepts and have a look at it. And the turnaround is much quicker. Yeah. Permanent attractions, we've been talking about 2 to 3 years, here, we are trying new stuff every year. And that's really fun to see how responds to look at new things, new tech, new things, new creative, how things blend in together, and it's much faster turn around than you get in new area that you are trying to get new concepts.
Kathryn Stafford: I'll be honest. I'm already have been starting to think about leveling up again next year. Right okay, I have thinking about doing hot stuff again.
Paul Marden: Yes, going bigger, going better.
Kathryn Stafford: Exactly, like you keep leveling up.
Paul Marden: Yeah.
Kathryn Stafford: Have they got some sort of light sensor?
Kathryn Stafford: I am doing a little tour around Europe to go and see some of the best Christmas experiences. So to draw from. Draw from the best.
Paul Marden: Basically. Yeah. Kat's given me her ideas of what she might see next year, and I noticed that it was distinctly lacking in, you know, ideas themselves. Just her. Just her nascent fears about having to make things better. What about you? What do you think that we can expect to see next year?
Rob Paul: Tech wise? Tech wise. There's definitely a lot of things that we could bring to the trail, so I'm excited about some things we could discuss. I've seen a lot of new tech out there that I'd like to bring in.
Paul Marden: Oh really?
Rob Paul: In terms of. Yeah. Different lighting elements, dynamic lighting elements. That would be fun to try and bring in. But let's, let's see how the creative process goes.
Paul Marden: And what does that mean? Does that need a blank cheque for you to be able to go and afford all this?
Rob Paul: No, it's not, to be honest. It's not. It's because the thing is, it's that, it's that holistic approach, isn't it? Because we have to deliver the whole thing. So it's, where do we put that emphasis? Where do we think it's worthwhile? Yes, Investing a little bit. Yeah, exactly. There'll still be that. Those element of nostalgia we need to bring back. We've got to light the space and then we've got to think about, you know, changing it up and what's going to be impactful for the guest.
Kathryn Stafford: You have to enter the plant.
Paul Marden: If you enjoyed today's episode, please like it and share in your podcasting app. It really helps other people to find us. Transcripts and links to everything we've discussed today can be found on our website skiptheque.fm.
Skip the Queue is brought to you by crowdconvert who provide attractions with the tools and expertise to create world class digital interactions.
Very simply, CrowdConvert is here to rehumanise commerce. Today's episode was written by Sami Entwisle and Emily Burrows from Plaster. Editing was by Steve Folland and production was by Wenalyn Dionaldo with production assistance by Amelia Marden. Thanks for listening and see you in the new year.
Windsor Light: Happy holidays to my favourite forest friends. I hope to see you in my woods again next year.