Imagine walking outside and looking up into the night sky. Chances are, seeing is not necessarily believing: you know the stars are there, somewhere, but with all that light pollution and city glare, you settle for a yellow haze—nothing close to true black speckled with light. Kind of a bummer, right? Most of us have to trek to the middle of nowhere to see the stars, but such is the plight of city living.
Rewind to Reykjavik, Iceland, back in 2006, where the city took the sky into their own hands in a mind-bogglingly beautiful campaign. Lights Out Stars On implored residents to darken the city lights for a half hour. That night, Reykjavik caught a glimpse of the stunning aurora borealis and the twinkling stars without the interference of light pollution.
Naturally, people paid attention. Global electronics company LG was inspired by the worldwide effort to combat light pollution and implemented its advanced OLED technology to help bring this important issue to greater public attention. Just as the elimination of light pollution allowed the people of Reykjavik to see the beauty of the pure night sky, the perfect black of LG OLED TVs heightens contrast and allows for richer images.
And so, in celebration of the deep nighttime darkness that Mother Nature intended, Reykjavik hosted the Lights Out Stars On Concert decade later, featuring Ásgeir, GusGus and Ólafur Arnalds, performing in front of a display which featured 40 OLED screens and a combined 330,000,000 self-emitting OLED pixels. The awe-inspiring images of the northern lights were captured on location in Iceland during the winter, the time of the year when the Aurora Borealis is most clearly visible.
Ready to catch a glimpse of our universe's best celestial light show? We invite you to pop in those headphones, turn off your overhead lights, and enjoy the video below:
Want more? For a glimpse behind the scenes and to see the impact of the project, hear from some of the makers, creators, and delighted viewers:
This post is brought to you by LG.
