Illuminarium Atlanta officially opens to the public

ATLANTA - A month ago, Good Day Atlanta gave you a first look inside Illuminarium Atlanta, an eye-popping immersive attraction and event venue located along the Atlanta BeltLine.

Now, it’s opening day — and we spent the morning getting the full experience inside this unique 30,000-square-foot addition to the city.

So, what is Illuminarium, exactly? CEO Alan Greenberg explains it like this: "Illuminarium is a place that can take you any place." Outfitted with $15 million worth of technology, the space surrounds visitors with video projection, sound, scent, and even floor vibrations — creating a virtual reality, Greenberg says, without the need for VR goggles.

Starting today, visitors to Illuminarium will experience a spectacle called "Wild: Safari Experience," with video shot on-location in Africa by content partner Radical Media. From marching herds of elephants to a majestic lion in a thunderstorm, the idea is to not just transport guests to Africa but to give them an even better look at the landscape and animals than they’d get in-person.

Aside from offering roughly 60-minute experiences, Greenberg says the facility’s two rooms are also designed to host events; the smaller of the two hosts The Bar at Illuminarium, which presents cocktail hour in an immersive setting.

"We can do a 350-person seated dinner, we can do an 800-person cocktail party," Greenberg says.  "If it's a corporate event we can make it look like anything.  If you want to have a destination wedding…let's say you want to have a wedding in Paris in Atlanta, we can make this Paris."

For more information on visiting Illuminarium Atlanta — located at 550 Somerset Terrace — click here.  And click the video player to check out our morning as the first television crew to broadcast live from inside!

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