Show to Light Up Downtown for the All-Star Game

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Excitement has been building for the All-Star Game here in Kansas City, and some creative companies want to help be apart of that excitement with a video show that will wow crowds.

The show will take place downtown, at Barney Allis Plaza, and will light up Municipal Auditorium like you’ve never seen it before.

It’s called video mapping. But you will probably call it “awesome.”

“We call it the ‘wow factor’,” says Keli O’Neill Wenzel, with O’Neill Marketing. “Anytime you show a crowd something they weren’t expecting is a home run in our opinion.”

“I think it’s great the all star game is here,” says Anthony Magliano, with Quixotic. “Anything we can do to celebrate that moment for the community and get people jazzed about it.”

The creative minds at Quixotic and Bazillion designed an amazing show for the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts opening celebration. Now they’re hard at work designing the next show for Kansas City’s All-Star weekend. The show focuses on the history of Kansas City, and Kansas City baseball, and highlights the area’s vibrant arts and technology communities. And video mapping is part of being on that cutting edge.

“It’s like creating allusions,” says Magliano. “We take the architecture and make it look like the walls are coming to life. So we might have baseballs falling or coming at you or reflecting, so lots of tricks we can do.”

First they have to survey the architecture of Municipal Auditorium’s facade, and then they enter it into computers to design the imagery and 3-D special effects.

They say this is better than any laser light show or fireworks show. They hope people see it and feel amazed.

“Just the wow factor,” says Scott McCarthy with Bazillion. “And feeling great and that they saw an illusion that blows their mind.”

The video mapping show will premier at the Grand Slam Fan Jam the Friday before the All-Star Game, at 9:30pm. Then it will play again on a loop several times in the evening all weekend long.

For more information about the free Grand Slam Fan Jam event, click here.