Immersive 'Fairy Tales: The City of Stories' LBVR opens in Andorra la Vella

An immersive experience that transforms classic fairy tales into interactive worlds has opened at the Centre de Congressos in Andorra la Vella for the Christmas season. Titled Fairy Tales. The City of Stories, the installation invites visitors to walk through a narrated virtual city populated with familiar storybook characters and settings.

The experience uses a Location Based Virtual Reality (LBVR) model in which participants move physically through a real space while interacting with a synchronized virtual environment. Organiser Marc Colomines says the show is not conventional single-user VR: it is designed for groups and can accommodate up to 45 people at once.

Visitors are introduced to the narrative by a character known as Grandmother Valentina and encounter reinterpretations of classics such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Adventures of Pinocchio, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, and Puss in Boots. The scenes are presented in first person, with multiple interaction points that allow participants to act within the story—examples include firing bursts of energy at a dragon or playing with mushrooms in the woods to produce a symphony.

A defining feature is that each participant progresses at their own pace. People enter the experience at regular intervals so audiences circulate through corridors and stages that change according to individual progress, creating unique combinations of simultaneous experiences. Colomines explains this can mean one visitor is fighting a dragon while others in the same area are floating through a cloudscape.

Technical coordination is handled by XROAM software, which tracks users and prevents collisions while supporting a high throughput of people. The installation requires minimal fixed infrastructure: a large, open room, floor and wall markers to map real positions, and lightweight VR headsets. According to the organisers, setup is quick—participants simply don the headsets and begin walking through the virtual worlds.

The team hopes to gauge local reception and encourage interest in the technology. The show’s opening weekend sold more than 1,200 tickets, and organisers say the family-oriented timing of the holiday season should help sustain strong attendance.

Fairy Tales is an established international franchise, currently operating in the United Kingdom and Germany and previously presented in Belgium and several Chinese cities. Andorra la Vella is the project’s first location in Andorra and the first local deployment of this particular LBVR setup.