Grace Cathedral is a beautiful centerpiece in San Francisco, looking much older than its age of under 100 years. It’s an active church, but I know it best for the cultural events that are hosted there. A few years ago we saw a Candlelight Concert, and this weekend we went to see Aura.

Aura is a multimedia spectacle that has been hosted in the Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal, various venues in Paris and is now at Grace Cathedral. In each location it transforms the venue into an immersive living canvas using light, original music, and projection mapping effects.

The Aura show in Grace Cathedral lasts 45 minutes from start to end, of which 30 minutes is the actual performance. It kicks off with a narration about the history of community, while slowly building up the effects. All of these are accomplished at this point by projecting detailed images onto every visible surface in the center of the church.

There are a few references to San Francisco in the intro, but soon Aura drops into its main part - which is loud music and beautiful projections. One minute you’re wondering if these stained-glass windows are really that pretty (hint: they aren’t, it’s all a projection), then you can see through them to an open landscape behind it. The same with the roof: it goes from being on fire, to being fully transparent showing the a sky (or ocean) behind it, to being the top of an aviary with a few birds even sitting on the ribs in the vault.

If the video or audio doesn’t play, you can download it here

The sound quality is quite good too. They clearly put some good speakers in the cathedral in addition to the numerous projectors to make the spectacle come to life.

We really enjoyed Aura at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco: an audiovisual spectacle that makes good use of its spectacular location.

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