Bristol's Cabot Circus became a free gig venue with a difference as hundreds of teenagers piled in to see chart-topping hip hop star Tinchy Stryder.

The 22-year-old was at the Bristol shopping centre to introduce his hologram performance.

He did not perform on stage but appeared as a hologram, as did fellow stars N-Dubz and Pixie Lott.

It was bemusing to Sunday shoppers and to some onlookers, but most of the young audience found the event highly exciting.

Scores of them recorded the occasion on their mobile phones and clamoured for free posters and mobile phone Sim cards being handed out by mobile phone firm Orange.

One teenager said: "It was a bit disappointing. We thought he was going to sing but all we saw was a hologram of the back of his hood."

But 16-year-old Cliona Kelly, from St Paul's, said the event, which followed a sell-out performance from the star at Bristol's O2 Academy on Monday. was mind-boggling. "It's not every day you have the chance to see something like this. It's good for Bristol," she said.

She and her friends Zibiah Weinred, Zhane McCalla and Bianca Garton, were able to meet Stryder in person and get his autograph.

They all pronounced him "cool".

Catlin Osborne, 17, had travelled from Gloucester to see the rapper, who had a chart-topping hit – appropriately entitled Number 1 – earlier this year.

"I am a huge fan," she said. "I have seen him live twice before. and I had my photo taken with him."

The gig was part of the first series of Orange Monkey Hologram shows. Others have been held at the Lakeside Centre near London, Birmingham's Bullring and Sheffield's Meadowhall centre. The event is now moving on to the Arndale Centre in Manchester.

Spencer McHugh, of Orange, said that the shows were an extension of a new package that offered free music to pay-as-you-go mobile phone customers.

"The Orange Monkey Hologram gigs are giving audiences the chance to see some of the UK's hottest talent in a fresh and exciting way," he said.