Bristol Light Festival has revealed its plans for the new year with its biggest event to date, taking over the city centre for ten days. The interactive light trail sees a number of installations created by different artists throughout the city's streets.
The free festival first came to Bristol in 2020 to offer captivating, large-scale artworks to allow people to see Bristol in a new way after dark. 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.
Read more: Some of the best Bristol Christmas light displays you can visit this year
In July, 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 event will span ten days from February 3-12, 2023 to include two weekends, making it the longest edition to date. The installations will shine from dusk until 10pm and will illuminate a few unexpected places, as well as some of Bristol’s most famous landmarks across the city. The organisers have already announced a selection of confirmed content for next year’s event, with more still to be revealed.
Internationally acclaimed artist Morag Myerscough will be bringing a brand new commission to the city with a thematic focus on how colour, pattern and words can change urban environments. They are joined by Davy and Kristin McGuire whose piece 'Ophelia' will reference Millais’ famous painting will be based at St Mary Redcliffe Church, set to be an emotive and mesmerising visual experience.
Artist Illumaphonium will be bringing their piece 'Halo' to Broadmead and promises to be perfect for children and young families. Similarly, a star of last year’s Bristol Light Festival, ‘Swing Song’ will return in 2023, bringing childhood fun and playfulness to those that hop on.
Organisers are encouraging visitors to plan ahead for their visit to Bristol Light Festival, considering sustainable travel arrangements as well as places they may like to eat, drink or stay in the city. It is working with Guide.AI to create a free audio guide that visitors can use by downloading the Guide.AI app, which will be available in twelve languages including English, Mandarin, Spanish, German, French, Danish, Italian, Dutch, Japanese Polish, Hindi and Portuguese.
Bristol Light Festival is a ten-day event across the city centre from February 3-12, 2023
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