A giant, illuminated pumpkin announces that you are about to enter the world of Halloween, until you finally arrive at the beginning of Christmas. As if you were Jack Skellington himself, but in the New York Botanical Garden, you will find all kinds of graves, crosses, bats, spider webs, smoke, gifts, Santa Claus, Christmas trees or unforgettable characters like Sally or Zero. It is the latest major production by the Spaniard Iñaki Fernández, who came to New York with his team to recreate Tim Burton’s iconic film, The Walking Dead, in the open air. Nightmare Before Christmasa mega-production that they have been working on for two years and which, according to Fernández himself, has not been easy at all.
“It is not easy to work in an open-air location, taking into account the environmental factors that must be respected,” said the founder of LETSGO, an entertainment company with more than 15 years of experience creating all kinds of shows and performances, to EL PAÍS. “We take environmental respect into account in order to take care of the spaces, the protected gardens, and to make use of the technique of mixing sound with video, with video projections, with lights, with figures.”
To Fernández —who had already worked with Tim Burton on the immersive experience of The Labyrinthwhich opened in Madrid in 2022 and is now in Berlin, or in the creation of the lighting experience Nature on firewhich received more than a million spectators—he came up with the idea of making a show out of the film Nightmare Before ChristmasOne day he mentioned the idea to the creator of classics like Beetlejuice either The Corpse Bridewho replied that he loved it, but that he had to consult with Disney. With all the permissions on his side, Fernández started the ambitious project on which Adventurelive, the same production team of the work, is also working. Hamiltonfrom Broadway.
“It is very exciting and gives you that adrenaline that you can’t get any other way,” said Fernández on September 26 during the world premiere of his new film. show“It has been very difficult for us to get it open, especially since we are a company from Spain that is working in the United States. We are very excited, because it is our first experience here in New York and we believe that, in addition, people will like it a lot. It is a magnificent trip. The trees and the vegetation make it totally immersive. The mixture of Tim Barton’s world in a space like this with video mappingwith lights, with the figures from the film, they teleport you to that peculiar Timbartesque world,” he added.
A 2,000-square-meter space in the vast Bronx botanical garden, which has been welcoming visitors for more than 130 years, now recreates Burton’s film that premiered in New York in 1993 and was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Visual Effects category. 3D-printed character sculptures, smart LED lighting, music and all kinds of provocations make up the immersive experience of the light trail. Nightmare Before Christmaswhich can be enjoyed in a time of 45 minutes and a route of almost one kilometer.
Felipe de Lima, creative director of LETSGO and the person in charge of setting the scene for the trail that the curious will be able to follow for nine weeks, until November 30, told this newspaper that they arrived from Spain a month ago, where the entire project was developed and then moved to New York and that they hope to later take to various cities in the United States and around the world.
“There are twenty installations in which different art techniques were used,” he said. “Apart from the figures, which are large-scale and have impressive details, there is the use of lighting, the soundtrack, the sound and video effects. It is wonderful. What is also different is that you are in a forest, in a natural environment. It is a great experience. For me, what is special is the idea that it envelops you. It is something worth coming to see because it is unique,” he added.
Even though LETSGO already has experience with previous productions, working with Tim Burton is always a challenge. According to Fernández, Burton is someone “very committed and detail-oriented” who expects the best from others. “He has been very demanding and has even participated in part of the creations,” he said. “He visited the workshops with us, when he didn’t like something he painted it himself and gave us lots of notes on how to work. He is very nice and very approachable. He is a very peculiar, charming character. And it is not easy to work with him if you are not up to his expectations. But we have got the hang of it and we like him, he respects us, above all he supports us a lot in everything and tells us and guides us on the path to reach excellence, which is what he asks for.”
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