The Forest Comes Alive

With rockface projections, marshmallows and a secret new feature, the Enchanted Forest explores how nature and technology can live in harmony

- by RACHEL McCONACHIE

AS October arrives, something otherworldly stirs in the heart of Highland Perthshire. Deep within Faskally Wood near Pitlochry, trees shimmer, paths glow and music floats on the cool air.

This year's Enchanted Forest show - titled Luminara - is back: bigger, brighter and more deeply rooted than ever in the local landscape it transforms each autumn.

Scotland's award-winning sound and light show has earned a devoted following over the past two decades. But this isn't just a spectacle - it is a creative collaboration, a community fundraiser and, for the team behind it, a labour of love.

"I get excited about it every year," says Karen Falconer, creative director at Wavemakers, the company responsible for the forest's design. "It's such an amazing event. It's just a joy of a job. The team all collaborate together, then we collaborate with the wider team - animators, composers, lighting designers. Everyone just feeds off each other."

The 2025 edition explores a striking new theme: harmony between nature and modern technology.

The creative concept began with a simple but profound question: how can these two forces, often seen as opposites, live in balance?

The idea of interconnection, drawn from ecology, permaculture and natural networks like mycelium, became the foundation. The forest, after all, is already full of unseen conversations.

Karen and her team developed a narrative that invites visitors to explore that idea playfully. “The visitor will arrive in the forest and they'll learn that they're on a journey,” she says. “They have to engage and participate to find out what that journey is. There’s a narrative again this year. It’s all about nature and technology coexisting and living in harmony, and having a bit of a balance between the two.”