Winchester’s newest visitor attraction, Anglo-Saxon experience 878 AD, has been nominated for an international award.
878 AD has been nominated in the Themed Entertainment and Attractions Project of the Year category in the 2023 AV Awards, industry awards that attract entries from across the globe and which recognise excellence and the outstanding achievements of individuals, companies, projects and technology across the AV, events and production sectors. 878 AD will be up against stiff competition, with the seven other nominees in the category including the recently reimagined Titanic Belfast experience and the Flying Scotsman VR experience at the National Railway Museum in York. The 2022 winner of the category was the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai.
This is the third award recognition received by 878 AD, with the attraction having won or been nominated for awards on a local, national and now international level. 878 AD was winner of the Technology and Innovation Award at Winchester’s 2023 Business Excellence Awards and was shortlisted in the Partnership of the Year category in the nationwide Museum + Heritage Awards, which celebrate the very best in the world of museums, galleries and cultural and heritage visitor attractions.
878 AD, which opened in Winchester’s Brooks Shopping Centre in November 2022, is the result of a partnership between Winchester-based charity Hampshire Cultural Trust, Ubisoft, creators of global gaming sensation Assassin’s Creed®, experiential design and production practice, Sarner International, and tech innovator, Sugar Creative. This partnership is unique in the UK, with a heritage organisation, the gaming sector and leading tech innovators coming together for the first time to create a historical visitor attraction.
The vision behind 878 AD was not only to bring Winchester’s Anglo-Saxon history to life at a pivotal point – the Battle of Edington when King Alfred defeated the Vikings – but more importantly, to interpret history in a new and exciting way for people who may not be interested in visiting traditional museums, using imagery from Assassin’s Creed® Valhalla, AV projections and an augmented reality app tour of Winchester’s historic sites.
Paul Sapwell, chief executive of Hampshire Cultural Trust, commented: ‘We are thrilled to have been nominated for this award and to be in such illustrious company in our category. It is a fantastic recognition of what this unique partnership has achieved – 878 AD really is something new in the heritage world. The experience is based on the latest academic research and displays authentic 9th century objects but tells its story through the immersive world of Assassin’s Creed, incredible AV projections, live performance and a cutting edge, augmented reality app tour of Winchester that reveals Alfred’s legacy to the city in a completely new way.”
The winners of the awards will be announced at a ceremony on Friday 3 November at Evolution London in Battersea Park.