A festival of light installations that has wowed Bristol since it was first staged back in 2020 is coming back at the end of this week - and the locations around the city centre where the installations will be have been revealed.
The Bristol light Festival 2023 will be the biggest event to date, with no fewer than 11 separate light installations - many of them interactive - and the big switch-on taking place on Friday, February 3, and the free art show continuing for ten nights until the end of Sunday, February 12.
The free festival was first staged just a month before the very first covid pandemic lockdown and has managed to return in the years since, with last year's event bringing more than 170,000 people to restaurants, shops and bars throughout its run, Bristol city centre BID team revealed.
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This year, the 11 sites around the city centre will be walkable in one evening for those making a one-off visit, or easily taken a few at a time over the course of the ten evenings the lights will be on. The artworks have been numbered 1-11 by the organisers, but people can make their own route around the city centre, from College Green on the west side, to the bus station in the north and two locations in Redcliffe, on the other side of the Floating Harbour.
Fronted by Creative Director Katherine Jewkes and Vicky Lee, Head of Bristol City Centre BID, 2023 aims to showcase up to ten light installations from local, national and international light artists. The BID revealed last year's event has a huge economic impact on the city centre attracting more than 170,000 people to restaurants, shops and bars throughout the period.
"Bristol Light Festival will bring light, fun and colour to the city centre to brighten up the winter evenings. Visitors can wander and explore the city’s streets to see the light artworks come to life and enjoy Bristol’s wonderful retail and hospitality businesses along the way," a spokesperson said.
In July last year, Vicky Lee, head of Bristol City Centre BID, said: "Bristol Light Festival is one event that we have seen to make a significant economic impact and has had really positive public feedback, so we aim to make this a key annual event across the next five years to give the much-needed boost to Bristol’s city centre economy across the winter months."
The full list of the locations of all 11 installations are:
1 College Green - 'Swing Song'
A set of six interactive swings which light up and play music as you swing back and forth. The swings play a set of tracks which have been produced especially for Bristol Light Festival. One swing controls the bass line, another controls the melody, and a third controls drums and percussion. Small movements produce simple tunes, but as users swing higher and higher the tracks evolve into more complex melodies.
2 Cascade Steps, The Centre - 'Sirens'
'Sirens’ is a stunning holographic projection that will transform the Floating Harbour in front of the Cascade Steps into a mythical underwater world inhabited by supernatural sea creatures and mysterious mermaids.
"Created to signify the impact of climate change, ‘Sirens’ suggests how even fairy-tale creatures could be affected by the climate crisis, as mermaids travel closer inland in an attempt to survive. These unexpected visitors to Bristol’s floating harbour will be swimming through the water and interacting with sea creatures in this stunning light installation.
3 Queen Square, 'Alright My Luvver'
Inexplicably and slightly annoyingly, this featured in last year's Light Festival, and continues to be spelled incorrectly with an apostrophe in place of the 'H' for some reason, but "Alright My Luvver" is one of the old favourites of the Bristol Light Festival.
4 King Street, 'Let Us Shine'
Brand new for the Bristol Light Festival, internationally acclaimed artist Morag Myerscough looks to be creating a bright, colourful and pattern-laden environment to explore in King Street.
5 Corn Exchange, Corn Street - Scream The House Down
The front building of St Nick's Market will be transformed into an entire building's worth of interactive light. The lights will respond to voices, and the louder the bigger the response from the building. This could well be the star of the show.
6 Bristol Bus and Coach Station - Cheers Drive
An old favourite of the Light Festival, it has been installed permanently since August 2020, and where better than at the bus station.
7 The Podium, Broadmead - Halo
Right in the middle crossroads of Broadmead, Halo will see columns and rings of light interact, light up and play music on the touch of a finger.
8 Quakers Friars, Cabot Circus - Trumpet Flowers
In the bit of Cabot Circus between The Galleries and actual Cabot Circus, Quakers Friars has hosted an installation at every light festival so far, and this year's is special. Another installation that is interactive, with light and music responding to the people moving around it, it was created by Sydney-based design studio Amigo and Amigo.
"Feel like you are shrinking as you approach these super-sized trumpet flowers and tentatively step inside some unseen Giant’s musical garden, becoming surrounded by an explosive and immersive jungle of light, colour and sound," said a Light Festival spokesperson. "Moving in and around the flower forest, interactive keys allow visitors to play each flower as a 2-6m towering musical and light instrument."
View the interactive map on the festival's website here
9 Castle Bridge - Beam
The newest bridge across the Floating Harbour, it spans the water from Castle Park to the new Finzel's Reach development. This involves lasers and haze to create a beautiful, ever-changing light sculpture that offers different viewing dimensions. It has been created by Brislington-based creatives PYTCH.
10 Temple Church - Continuum
Across the water into Redcliffe, the bombed-out Temple Church and Gardens are playing host to 25 mirrored monoliths, which create a maze of reflection and light.
11 St Mary Redcliffe Church - Ophelia
Ophelia was Hamlet's ex who took her own life in a lake, and has been the inspiration of countless artists ever since. This stunning light installation creates a life-size hologram inspired by Millais' famous painting of the drowning Ophelia, and is set inside the church itself - giving people a rare opportunity to enter the venue at night.
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