Tallaween – Ireland’s first ever ‘Virtual Theme Park

On Saturday, October 19th, from 5.30 pm, the electrifying Tallaween Festival begins. This is a cutting-edge, multi-media spectacle featuring an augmented reality mobile game, a thrilling video projection with a laser light show and a live performance kicking off outside the Civic Theatre.

This will be the first-ever virtual theme park in Ireland, and perhaps in the world, and the game will be played for the first time on October 19th. The video projection and laser light show will be accompanied by a soundtrack, which will be performed live and features a dramatic mix of opera from celebrated singer Claudia Boyle, hip-hop featuring Fortune, emerging as one of Ireland’s leading hip-hop artists, and Saibh, who had a Number 1 in June on the Apple Charts with ’Siren Song’.

‘Tallaween’ will be unleashed on Saturday, the 19th, bringing the library’s darkest tales to life. Inspired by a bold reimagining of Dante’s Inferno, this chilling creation by Niall Austin and a team of renowned artists, musicians, filmmakers, and game designers will haunt Parthalán Place every night from 5 PM to 9 PM until October 31st.

Set free from the constraints of ink and paper, an array of characters from the literary genres of Mythology, Horror and Sci-Fi have now entered Parthalán Place, and gamers are invited to ‘take up their Wand’ to cast these evil characters back between the covers of their host books. They can also protect themselves with their ‘Shield’, but be warned… each enemy enjoys different characteristics and skills and must be fought in different ways!

Virtual Theme Park: A World-First Experience

There has never been a ‘Virtual Theme Park’ in Ireland or, indeed, anywhere else in the world. This is a location where people can go to play a game together on their respective mobile phones or devices.  In the augmented reality game, players use their mobile devices to engage in real-time with their surroundings, combating ‘baddies’ in a fully immersive game.

Also, while the featured characters will roam Parthalán Place daily from 10 am, the particularly ‘nasty’ ones will only surface between 5 pm and 9 pm nightly. A preview of this trailblazing game can now be seen here:

South Dublin County Council has supported innovation in the arts through funding research and development projects that ‘bring the stage to the digital age’ – this is highly innovative and will attract a lot of attention both in Ireland and internationally. Proprietary technology in the Virtual Theme Park game was recently developed in collaboration with Maynooth University, which embraces emerging technology that will resonate more meaningfully with younger audiences.

Tallaween will be launched this year as one of the highlights of The Red Line Book Festival coming up on October 14th – 20th 2024.  Over 40 literary events will take place is venue acrossSouth County Dublin over the week with an eclectic mix of established writers and new voices.  It is a celebration of literature, storytelling, and creativity and has grown to become one of the highlights of the cultural calendar.

Now in its 13th year, The Red Line Book Festival is produced by South Dublin Libraries and Arts at South Dublin County Council offering a programme of events and workshops that appeals to people of all ages and interests, from children to adults, casual readers to bookworms.

See www.redlinefestival.ie for the full programme of events taking place across all venues.