Watch: Stunning light show illuminates York Minster – and there may be more like it to come!

Awed crowds witnessed the unveiling of a stunning new light show in York tonight (Friday).

Colour and Light is an animated illumination, projected onto the South Transept of York Minster.

Commissioned by the York BID, the light show brings the ancient cathedral alive in a way that you have to see to believe.

The sound and light spectacular focuses on the story of the stained glass and other secrets of the cathedral’s past.

Because the animations have been precisely mapped onto the contours and lines of the Minster by light show specialists Double Take, it can sometimes feel as if the Minster itself is on the move.

Carl Alsop from the York BID told YorkMix: “This is something we’ve been aiming to do at the York BID for a long time now – seven years in the making, you might say!

“But we’ve always wanted to do it properly. I think we’ve probably got the right canvas – and I’m confident we’ve got the right content. It’s looking good.”

Some of the animated sequences bring details from the Minster windows to life. Others focus on the unseen history, such as the strange rune-like symbols that were the stonemasons’ marks, left on the stones as they built the cathedral hundreds of years ago.

So, could we get more locations in York lit up by animated projections like this one?

“I’d like to think so,” said Carl. “And I certainly hope so.

“We’ll see how successful this is. If people like it then, maybe the first of many!”

• Colour and Light is on at the South Transept of York Minster from 10th-23rd February, 6-9pm