New nostalgic light shows coming to Burj Khalifa

The world's tallest building's two new light shows capture the feeling of summer, and growing up in the 1980s and 1990s

It may now be September, but that doesn't mean that summer fun has come to an end. This month, Burj Khalifa will be showing two new nostalgic light shows, which will be performed at regular intervals every day throughout the month.

The world's tallest building's first new LED display is a feel-good throwback. Called Memory Lane, it has been created by British multimedia artist Anthony Birland and aims to capture "the nostalgia of the 1980s and 1990s ... taking spectators through memories of past decades with inspiration drawn from retro arcade machines and vintage electronics, recreating the excitement of being young and carefree".

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A post shared by Anthony Birland (@birlandcreative)

"Here's the show I created for September on Burj Khalifa. A little throwback to the 1980s [and] 1990s where arcades had the best games, winning a teddy on a grabber was exciting and playing snakes on your phone was the most advanced tech you'd experienced," Birland wrote on Instagram of his show. "Turning the Burj into a giant game of space invaders was fun though."

The second display, entitled Summer Done, has been created by designer Karl Taylor-Knight. The show celebrates the fun of summer days, which are now coming to a close.

A still from Karl Taylor-Knight's 'Summer Done' LED show at the Burj Khalifa, which will be displayed daily throughout September. Courtesy Burj Khalifa 

Expect everything from parasols to beach balls and bold images of seasonal fruit to be projected on to the Downtown building.

The video is made up of vibrant colours and will be accompanied by lively music. Taylor-Knight is also on the design and animation team for Expo 2020.

This year alone Burj Khalifa has displayed a number of incredible light shows and displays. They have ranged from fun footage from The Lion King, to celebrate the live-action release, to international flags to mark global national days and an image of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, following the Christchurch shootings.

The new LED shows are set to run daily throughout September on Burj Khalifa, Downtown Dubai; hourly from 7.45pm until 10.45pm, Sunday to Wednesday; every half hour from 7.45pm until 10.45pm, Thursday to Saturday; www.burjkhalifa.ae