The Fairmont Empress is a world-famous hotel, located in the heart of downtown Victoria on Vancouver Island. It was built in 1908 at a time when the capital city was still in its youth. Now, more than a hundred years later, it is a world-famous landmark, providing housing and dining for dignitaries including Queen Elizabeth II and Justin Trudeau.
The Empress was purchased by Nat Bosa, a Vancouver developer and philanthropist, as a gift for his wife in the spring of 2014. FestiLight began working with the Fairmont Empress just after it was purchased. The plan was to update the interior of the hotel, as it had not been renovated since the late 1980s and that winter, Mr. and Mrs. Bosa opened a temporary skating rink in front of the hotel, as an “early Christmas gift” to Victoria. It has been an exciting, creative journey from the very beginning.
Project Outline: Fairmont Empress Lighting Plan
We have been fortunate enough to work with Fairmont Empress on multiple projects over the years, but our first season decorating the hotel involved the lighting of a full-size skating rink under a white tent. We hung an assortment of different sized white wicker ornaments above the rink, which were wrapped with twinkling lights for extra effect. The rest of the decorations that year included twinkling mini lights in the ivy around the veranda, and a full trunk and branch wrap of the giant tree at the corner of Government and Belleville Streets, as well as many other landscaping features around the property.