Arts & Entertainment

Multidimensional Laser Show Opens Today at Stone Mountain Park

New technology makes the mountain come to life with multidimensional effects.

As many as 1 million people see Stone Mountain Park’s Lasershow Spectacular each year. Now, the park is betting $1 million that the attraction will be even more popular.

The park has invested that much to upgrade the show, with technology it calls Mountainvision, to create eye-popping multidimensional effects: The mountain appears to crumble before your eyes, blocks of granite pop in and out of the mountainside. The stone opens up, and you see and hear lava pouring out.  At one point, the carving opens, revealing the Atlanta skyline with spacecraft coming out of the scene.

The new show, which premieres Saturday, May 28, still has some old favorites – “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” for one. All of the segments have elements of the new technology, but one is dedicated to showing off all the new bells and whistles. 

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“An American Trilogy ” -- the medley of “Dixie,”  “All My Trials” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” made popular by Elvis Presley --  returns, but instead of the laser just outlining the carved figures of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson, they come to life; rock crumbles away from the edges of the carving, and the trio are joined by other Civil War soldiers and horses.

Paul Creasy of the production company Full Spectrum LLC said the mountain was "skinned" by digitally mapping the surface, correcting the deep crevices of the carving and other imperfections, so that digital images seem to be projected onto a smooth surface. It's like a 5,500 inch high definition television, the park says. 

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With that, the imagination is the limit to what can be done, Creasy said.

The show also includes a salute to everyday heroes, such as doctors, nurses, police and firefighters; an homage to Atlanta professional athletes and Georgia college athletes; and a tribute to the armed forces.

One segment honors Georgia performing artists, with snippets from Ray Charles (of course), Indigo Girls, Sugarland, Allman Brothers, James Brown, REM and the B-52s, to name a few.

Lasershow Spectacular is still free, but parking is $10 per car. It will be shown nightly through Aug. 7, then on Saturdays until the end of October.

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