Last Friday, 11th October 2019, we went to see Light Night Leeds again. The first time I went was in 2016, which was the first year it was held on a Friday as well as Thursday (it had only been on a thursday night before then starting in 2005). You can read the blog post I wrote about that one here.
That first year I went on my own and enjoyed it so much that the next year my boyfriend wanted to come too, which you can read about here, and last year we had a family outing with my sister and nephew plus my mum and boyfriend all joining me, you can read about that one here.
A little more about Light Night Leeds 2019 taken from the website https://whatson.leeds.gov.uk/lightnight/Home
Experience Art in the Dark!
Light Night Leeds is the UK’s largest annual arts and light festival.
Over two incredible nights in October some of Leeds’ most recognisable indoor and outdoor spaces are transformed by spectacular artworks and captivating performances by local, national and international artists. Light Night invites people to see the city in a new light and discover over 60 free arts events across the city centre. From large-scale light projections and interactive installations, to music, dance and street performances, there is always something for everyone!
In 2019 Light Night celebrated the theme of ‘Mind, Body and Spirit’ – launching with a vibrant illuminated parade all about our dreams and imagination.
This year my mum wasn’t able to make it but my sister, nephew and boyfriend did, We parked at The Tetley (as they had reduced their parking to only £2 from 5pm onwards specially for Light Night Leeds) and we started by walking round to the docks to see ‘Voyage’ by artists Aether & Hemera which featured 100 illuminated ‘origami’ boats and ‘Shape of Light’ by Alex Webb which explored geometric arrangements of light and shadow set against an urban backdrop of granite. glass and water.
Next we popped into Leeds Minister for ‘Light Up Leeds Minister’ before making our way to the Corn Exchange where ‘Conductor” by Interplay Theatre was. When we got there the queues were quite long so even though there were sessions running every 10 minutes or so we decided not to wait and made our way to Granary Wharf instead.
At Granary Wharf was ‘Halo’ by artist Micheal Davis individual but digitally interlinked columns of ever evolving patterns of light and sound and ‘Ghost Caribou’ by Thingumajig Theatre where giant illuminated creatures, part caribou, part spirit roam a mystical world after dark accompanied by a wild herdsman. With music, song and shadow puppetsthey tell stories of lost homes, impossible migrations and seeds of hope before continuing the journey into their hautingley beautiful dream-world of the night.
Next we headed up to The Queens Hotel to see ‘The Vision’ by Ocubo.
Throughout the show, the imaginations of two characters were represented by an immersive experience into their minds. Taking the audience into a dream of endless exuberant mind landscapes through the eyes of those characters dreams.
It was while we were here that it started to rain, thankfully it didn’t last long though and by the time we got to Millennium Square to see ‘Angels of Freedom’ by OGE Group, Merav Eitan & Gaston Zahr it had almost stopped.
We had a quick look at ‘With Love’ by artist Franck Pelletier at the Town Hall which was a bright red heart that measured you and your partners Beats per Minute then played a clip from a love song based on that combined value, and then headed up to Leeds Civic Hall to see ‘Telekinetic Rumours’ by artist Pani Pawlosky. Fusing imagery, music and sound to create an immersive dreamlike story, taking us on a surrealist journey exploring the complexity of energy flow between mind, body and soul.
Next we went to Queen Square to see ‘Brothers and Sisters’ by artist Ron Haselden. Children from two Leeds primary schools, Richmond Hill Academy and Co-op Academy Oakwood, took part in special workshops to draw a picture of their sibling or friend and 10 were selected to be transformed into a large scale garland of LED lights.
From there we started walking back down to The Tetley, passing by Merrion gardens to see ‘Les Footballeurs’ by French artist Remi Brun. Two footballers, an attacker striking the ball and a goalkeeper diving to make a save, cleverly transmitted in a sequence of LED lights. and ‘Lightbattle X’ by VENIVIDIMULTIPLEX from the Netherlands on Briggate. Two crossed arches made of thousands of LED lights, each with a bike at it’s base which when pedalled hard pushes the beam of light to the middle as fast as possible to beat the other opponents.
Finally with only 10 minutes left of the event we made it back to The Tetley to see ‘Pleasance’ by NOVAK. This was our favourite thing of the evening and featured a 35 metre ground projection which was inspired by the forthcoming development, Aire Park, which is soon to transform the former Brewery Site.
We all enjoyed the evening, there is so much to see that if you can go for both days then you’ll have a better chance to see everything. It was also useful to have the app to show where things were as we were walking around and to have a bit of a plan of what things we wanted to get round to seeing.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this blog post as a way of seeing what you missed and maybe give you a taste of what it was like. I’m already looking forward to seeing that they come up with for next year!
Till next time.
Take care.
Purple Faye x
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