Project Type
Architainment/Immersive Experience. Universal Celestial Goodnight is a nightly immersive spectacular that wraps all of Celestial Park in light, from aerial effects to building washes and pathway textures, with dancing fountains and a fireworks finale joining in.
Project Name
Universal Celestial Goodnight
Client: Universal Orlando Resort.
Venue: Celestial Park, Universal Epic Universe, Universal Orlando Resort, Orlando, FL
Design Criteria
The brief was a show that is attractive from near and far. Up close, it immerses the guests in the middle of Celestial Park. From a distance, it draws people toward the center of the park at the end of the evening, and it makes the park itself an aspirational destination, a place people see glowing and want to be. The architecture of Celestial Park is stunning, with a level of detail rarely seen in themed entertainment. Our opportunity was to add a strong vertical layer on top of it, giving an already singular place a new dimension after dark.
Project Description
Universal Celestial Goodnight is a nightly spectacular that wraps all of Celestial Park in aerial lighting effects, building washes and pathway textures, joined by dancing fountains and a fireworks finale. It has closed every night at Universal Epic Universe since July 7, 2026. Over roughly ten minutes, an original score orchestrating the music of Epic Universe's worlds drives the show, while color and texture play across the facade of the Universal Helios Grand Hotel. Nearly 600 synchronized fixtures, more than 350 fountains and seven million LEDs are choreographed as one piece.
Challenges and Solutions
Celestial Park was arguably perfect already, so our job was to enhance a finished, operating park. Its data and power infrastructure was excellent, but this was a major addition on top of it, and many of the places we wanted light had to be reached without affecting existing operations. Every position had to work visually within the park and also be physically possible, whether a flat roof or, in some cases, a more challenging position requiring extensive build-out, so the practical and the design were solved together. Universal's flexibility made that workable, and they were fully on board with additions like lighting around Constellation Carousel. The environment brought its own opportunity: fixtures in fully wet locations. Mosaic show control sits outside the entertainment console world we live in, so we were fortunate to have 4Wall's Mosaic team, Kyle Arnold and Neville Billimoria, programmers who are designers in their own right. They worked as true design collaborators throughout, and the show is better for how hard they pushed on the details. Our own team was rounded out by absolute top-tier talent: David Seitz and Sieun Ye handled the grandMA programming, and Helena Magee was with us from day one, shaping the design and keeping everything moving.
Equipment
Equipment was chosen through a fixture shootout with stakeholders from across the park, weighing IP65 ratings alongside each manufacturer's track record for dependability. With a little runway in the schedule, we could make decisions based on what was right for the project instead of letting supply-chain timing drive them. The result is nearly 600 fixtures, including Ayrton Mamba and Veloce Profile, GLP Mad Maxx, Color Kinetics ReachElite 200 IntelliHue High Output and Elation SixPlus Par L. The Veloce Profiles carry custom gobo and color loads, and the Mad Maxx a custom color wheel load. Control is grandMA3, programmed by UVLD, with the Mosaic system programmed by the 4Wall team.
Team
Client: Universal Orlando Resort
Jason Horne, Assistant Director, Creative Development
Ryan O'Hearn, Senior Show Producer
Jessica Chen, Show Producer
Tyler Whipple, Technical Manager, Lighting
Saul Mudd, Technical Director
Noel Noble, Senior Technical Manager
Lighting Design: UVLD
Gregory Cohen and Matt Webb, Lighting Designers
David Seitz, Sieun Ye, Helena Magee, Associate Lighting Designers
Fountain Design & Programming: Stefan Zubovic
Lighting Systems Integration and Supply: 4Wall Entertainment
Brent Pritchett, VP of Systems Integration
Mosaic Designers & Programming: Kyle Arnold, Neville Billimoria
4Wall Integration: Sylvain Marcotte, Mason Axelson, Jackie Jernigan