Manitoba Planetarium to host Pink Floyd listening parties

One of the best-selling albums of all-time is being celebrated with a special show at the Manitoba Museum.

The museum’s planetarium is setting the sounds of Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon,” to new visuals of the cosmos, played out over the albums 42 minute runtime

“The album is like a long story, and the visuals are designed to fit it,” said Scott Young, planetarium astronomer with the Manitoba Museum.

The show is being staged to acknowledge the 50th anniversary of the classic album, which has sold an estimated 45 million copies worldwide, and is ranked fourth on the list of best-selling albums of all time. The album has charted for 981 weeks on the Billboard 200 Chart since its initial release, including a 14-year uninterrupted run.

Pink Floyd’s first presentation of “Dark Side of the Moon” took place at a planetarium in 1973.

The show uses modern technology to transport viewers through space and time, and Young said Winnipeg’s planetarium is one of a few in Canada equipped to show it.

“It's actually the person that designed the album cover for Dark Side of the Moon (Aubrey Powell from Hipgnosis), the prism with the rainbow coming out of it, worked on all the visuals with the planetarium in London and they decided to put the show together and then distribute it to 100 planetariums around the world,” he said, “And I think they're over 100 now because it's really taken off. It's a really popular show.”

The show will take place on six dates this summer: July 22 and 27, and August 12, 17, 26 and 31. Shows will begin at 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

Tickets can be purchased on the Manitoba Museum’s website.