See wild new looks of the Paramount Theatre in upcoming Asbury Park Color & Light Festival

ASBURY PARK -- The city will host the inaugural ​Color & Light Festival​ that will transform the façade of Asbury Park’s iconic Paramount Theatre with dazzling projection-mapping art shows set to music.

The art will rely on meticulously tailored 3D animations, detailed structural calculations and finely crafted musical compositions to make buildings appear as if they’re morphing before the audience’s eyes.

The event from 7:30 to 11 p.m. on March 21 and 22 is free to the public, as the festival is a collaboration between PolyOne, an arts and entertainment Web3 platform headquartered in Asbury Park, and project arts festival LUMA. Spectators can gather in Bradley Park across the street from the closed theater, which sits in front of Convention Hall.

Web3 is a catchall term for a "new" version of the World Wide Web that incorporates the concepts of decentralization, blockchain technologies, cryptocurrencies and NFTs.

Color & Light Festival and PolyOne founder Shawn Emamjomeh told the Asbury Park Press that "we have six of the world's best projection mapping teams all descending on Asbury Park to debut new works that are about four- or five-minute shows set to music that will transform the Paramount."

The teams from Hungary, Ukraine, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and the U.S. will debut original works of animated storytelling, creating the illusion that The Paramount Theatre’s architecture is physically transforming.

"Each of these teams, they've collectively mapped the world's most iconic buildings from Brandenburg Gate to the Winter Palace to the Towers of Tokyo and Dubai. So, it is kind of a coup for Asbury Park that they are all coming here," Emamjomeh said.

Festival goers can support a variety of pop-up artisans and enjoy an array of culinary delights from local food vendors.

Attendees can also explore a Parkside Gallery featuring a curated selection of emerging and established digital artists. This gallery will showcase an array of artworks, highlighting the "fusion of technology and creativity that defines the modern creative renaissance."

"We hope to make it an annual event here in Asbury," Emamjomeh said.

Joshua Bernard, Emamjomeh's collaborator and co-founder of LUMA Festival said that when he launched LUMA, projection mapping was "not super popular" in this country but was "really huge in Europe."

"It had been done mostly for advertising in the United States. We just saw it as this incredibly powerful, immersive storytelling form, really a new way to engage audiences," Bernard said. "One of the things about this artform, about immersive art, about art on this scale is you have to see it in person. You have to experience it in person. Watching the video of it is not the same thing as seeing it."

In 2021, Asbury Park ordered Convention Hall and the Paramount concert venues to be closed due to concerns about the historic building's safety.

City officials have berated Washington-based developer Madison Marquette, which has overseen redevelopment of the non-residential portion of the Asbury Park boardwalk since 2007 and controls the Convention Hall complex, for failing to make the repairs needed to reopen the nearly century-old buildings.

Mayor John Moor has said of Madison Marquette that "they don't tell us anything" and "they don't want to spend their own money" City officials have said the developer hasn't lived up to the terms of its development agreement, namely that it has failed to maintain the Convention Hall complex and the Casino building.

Early last year, Asbury Park was awarded $20 million from the New Jersey boardwalk fund, with $13 million tagged for repairing Convention Hall and the Paramount, and the remainder ticketed to make repairs and upgrade bathrooms on the south end of the boardwalk.

Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn said Wednesday that the city is in the final stage of negotiations with the developer to use that money "for the repair and rehabilitation of the Paramount Theater exterior building envelope." She said Madison Marquette is seeking additional grant money to finish the job on the entire Convention Hall complex.

"This is the best we could do," Quinn said.

She added "we remain cautiously optimistic that this project will continue to move forward in the upcoming months."

Charles Daye is the metro reporter for Asbury Park and Neptune, with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. @CharlesDayeAPP Contact him: CDaye@gannettnj.com