Symphonies of Steam, Fire, Metal and Water

This large scale public event from Eye Music Trust was created for our 2016 Tour event in Liverpool’s Albert Dock….

When the Liverpool Culture team told us about the first Steam Festival at Albert Dock in May 2016 we created our first Symphony of Steam, Sparks and Space.

Composer Ansuman Biswas was commissioned to create a one-hour Symphony for the massed Steam Traction engines, local Samba community orchestra Katumba, and a huge array of metal percussion, smoke and pyrotechnics.

We built the World’s Largest Set of Tubular Bells (accredited by Guinness World Records) - 120 lengths of scaffold, tuned and cut to size by George Roberts Scaffolding, Liverpool and hung from the canopy of the Albert Dock Floating Stage.

The assembled crowd of about 25,000 people was treated to a spectacular Symphony, as the Samba percussion surrounded them with rhythm, the Steam Traction Engines, Steam train, and Steam tugs hooted and called to each other, and the giant Tubular Bells created huge waves of sound. The whole piece coming to a climax with Chinese acoustic fireworks and gas cannons!

This event is has also been performed in Rotherham and will be appearing in other venues in the future - see What’s On for more details