Appointment to view: Behind the scenes of the Tropicana Sunrise

As part of its 'Brighter Mornings' campaign, juice brand Tropicana orchestrated the creation of a giant sun installation that "rose" at 5:57 am last Monday morning (23 January).

The electric "sun" was lifted by a giant crane and hung metres away from Trafalgar Square's Nelson's Column.

It was created by artists' collective Greyworld and the whole project took four months from start to finish with around 30 people involved.

The crew arrived at the square at 6pm on the Sunday night before the event and started to get all the safety systems in place.

A 200-tonne crane was used to lift the 2.5 tonne sun 20 metres into the air. Over 1.2km of cable was used and the wind was a major worry for the crew in case it blew over the crane and installation. Luckily, it was a very still day.

The sun needed 260,000 watts of power, which meant that a lot of work went into finding a generator capable of the task. The crew offset carbon emissions due to the amount of power used.

Professor Andrew Shoben, Greyworld founder and creative director, said:  "The sun was constructed using a special nylon blend that was both flame retardant and let the right wavelengths of light through.

"Its actual colour in daylight was not what we wanted, but when our Tungsten lights came on, it was just right.

"Watching people's faces as the sun came up, seeing the smiles and the gasps was all the reaction I needed. Sunlight has a strong psychological reaction in all people, and it is universally a good one.

Freud Communications was the lead agency for the stunt, while Initials Experience supported with brand amplification.

Over the course of the day brand ambassadors distributed over 35,000 cartons and bottles of Tropicana in Trafalgar Square and the surrounding area.

At the close of the day, the Tropicana sun set at 7.33pm.

More footage of the installation from Tropicana's YouTube channel