Sefton in the North West of England is the latest coastal region to launch Coastal Voice, an ambitious Heritage Lottery funded project that combines orchestral performance, community storytelling and cutting-edge augmented reality. A week earlier, Dover launched their trail of the cultural experience and it has already attracted strong interest from residents and visitors, with audiences keen to explore the town through this new digital lens. Other coastal towns such as Grimsby are using our platform and this video-opera project, to bring their shores to life with this geolocated storytelling.
Audiences don’t need tickets or specialist equipment—just a smartphone. By scanning a QR code, they access an interactive map guiding them through a series of geolocated experiences. As they move through the town, or walk along the coast, GPS triggers notify them when they reach key locations, unlocking a range of multimedia content. This includes extracts from the Coastal Voice film, behind-the-scenes footage, extended interviews with local residents, and creative work produced by children involved in the project. One young participant said: “I loved being part of it and hearing my work included in the project. Now I can show my family and friends what we made when we walk around town.”
What sets the trail apart is the way the media overlays onto the physical environment. Standing at the harbour or on a familiar street, participants can experience orchestral music, video operas, and first-hand accounts of life by the coast in the very places those stories were born. For one Dover resident, the effect was immediate: “It’s amazing to stand here on the seafront and hear people’s voices and music weaving together. Listening to the experience of a refugee, who crossed that wwater, whilst you are actually standing there, listening to the waves, makes you look at Dover in a completely different way.”
Organisers are encouraged by the strong response to the launch. A spokesperson for Music in Mind said: “We’ve been delighted by the response. This project is about connecting people to their own heritage in new and imaginative ways, and seeing residents and visitors embrace it has been very rewarding.”
Meanwhile, Gazooky Studios, who created the digital legacy through their 6DPixie platform, added: “Using our 6DPixie platform means the legacy of Coastal Voice will continue for years to come. Anyone with a phone can step into these stories and experience them in the locations where they first came to life.”
If you want to see some of the material available on the trails, try scanning these:
Everybody’s got a story to tell:
A Seascape:
A Special Place:
Breathing:
