‘City-sized Technoforge concert’ is chapter 34 of Insights from the Future, a book I’m writing about technology, innovation, and people … from the perspective of the future. THIS IS NOT NEWS; IT IS A PROJECTION OF FUTURE NEWS. Subscribe to my newsletter to keep in touch and get notified when the book publishes.
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Are you ready for a techno concert that is visible from the International Space Station? Hopefully Vancouver, Canada is.
Vancouver city council has given the go-ahead to a controversial city-sized concert by techno music pioneers Technoforge, who will be blanketing the city in smart sensors, speakers, and multi-color capable LED lights for a concert that promoters say will be visible from space.
Why is Vancouver doing this?
Quite simply, to boost the city’s smart city initiative by about a decade.
“We’re going to blanket the entire city with more than 75,000 internet-connected smart concert lights, speakers, sensors, and massive TV screens,” says Technoforge lead DJ Lil Afrojack. “They’ll hook into all city street lights and traffic signals, and we’ll coordinate them centrally from our main stage right off English Bay beach in the Vancouver harbor so that all the lights, music, and more than 500 individual dance pit locations will be perfectly synced with exactly what we’re playing, when we’re playing it.”
The result, according to experts, should be enough simultaneous lumens to pulsate right out to space, where the ISS will get a synced feed to join in the party, and the entire production will be streamed live on YouTube, Facebook, Reddit, and — in quite a coup for fractured international relations with China — Sina Weibo and Doyin as well.
Locals are wondering if the volume will be loud enough to heard from space too. Informing them that sound doesn’t travel in a vacuum does not appear to comfort them, and many are streaming out of the city for the summer concert week, which promises to draw over a million partygoers.
“We think it’ll be the biggest party ever,” Lil Afrojack said. “We’d like to see five million people downtown dancing, eating, drinking, and partying all night long.”
That’s a slight exaggeration.
Vancouver City Council has mandated that the noise cease at 3 AM, giving Vancouver residents who opt to stay for the party at least a few hours of sleep.
The reason the city is doing this, Mayor Stewart says, is that not only is it an opportunity to host the greatest party in the history of the world, it’s also going to leave a legacy of smart devices all over the city that will hook into the city’s high-tech operations center, reporting on traffic, accidents, crime, as well as serving as early warning indicators for utilities and maintenance crews.
“Technoforge is literally leaving millions of dollars worth of infrastructure behind when the party is over,” Stewart told me via email. “That’s huge and will accelerate our Vancouver Smart City project.”
But the party is the biggest reason, of course, and Technoforge promises to bring millions of fans to a massive city-sized techno rave for the very first time. Rumor has it that the group has some new music planned with beats and coordinating light shows that will sent a message to space in Morse code, or even spell out kilometer-scale words in lights … theoretically a communiqué of peace to any aliens who might be listening.
And who like techno music, of course.
The concert is called Technoforge World, and it will run on Friday August 18, 2023. Tickets will not be available as admission will be completely free, but access to the city’s downtown core will be limited to ensure safety. Hotel prices are already almost 10X standard rates, so expect to have problem finding a place to crash after partying all night. Vancouver officials say it will dwarf the biggest events ever held in Vancouver, including the Celebration of Light fireworks festival.
Again, this is a chapter of Insights from the Future, a book I’m writing about technology, innovation, and people … from the perspective of the future. Subscribe to my newsletter to keep in touch and get notified when the book publishes.