What’s On At The Festival
Browse below to see the artworks and installations coming up at the main Light Up Lancaster Festival, 6-8 November!
Each of the artworks and installations takes place 5pm – 10pm on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings.
There are no set times and no need to book for anything except the BSL tours (Sat 5pm and 7.30pm), so just turn up whenever you want!
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The Sky That Changes
By: Millie-Beth Wright The Sky That Changes is an immersive artwork projected onto the ceiling, transforming the space into a living night sky. Audiences are invited to sink into beanbags and gaze upward as three luminous stories unfold. The work explores how humans use and cherish light in ritual, in cities and in nature even though light is always ...
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BSL Tours of the Festival
Sat 8 Nov, 5pm or 7.30pm Starting at the Dukes Theatre, Moor Lane, LA1 1QELight Up Lancaster is delighted to welcome Martin Glover back to the festival, who will be offering British Sign Language (BSL) guided tours of the artworks and installations. Specialist facilitator Martin, who is himself deaf and a BSL user, and also a light artist, will take you on an illuminating tour of the festival, highlighting the artworks, their meanings and ...
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Still Waters Run Deep
5pm - 10pm Lancaster CastleBy: James Hooton Diego Moral Pombo – Senior research associate in ice-sheet geodes, Lancaster Environment Centre at Lancaster University. CREATIVE TEAM: Faith To (Illustration) and Amber Hooton (Music Composition) “Still Waters Run Deep” is a large-scale projection mapping artwork that transforms the historic façade of Lancaster Castle’s John O’Gaunt Gate, to tell the story of glacial change. Using ...
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Veil
5pm - 10pm Lancaster CastleBy Artist: Flolux Veil is an immersive laser and sound installation in the courtyard of Lancaster Castle. It brings to life the voices, songs and stories of Lancashire—celebrating its people and history from both past and present. Snippets of voice and melody accompany the laser light, weaving together a magical sound and light experience. The show is ...
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Urban Wyld
5pm - 10pm Sun SquareBy: Laura Spark Music: Jonathan Hering In a dark city corner, life begins to burst through the cracks. Weeds and wildflowers scale the walls, their stems weaving the history and folklore of local flora together with an abundant display of the beauty of untamed plant life. This hand made stop-motion animation lets loose a feral bouquet of living organisms finding ...
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Shadowplay: Dark and Light
5pm - 10pm The Gallery, The StoreyBy: Joseph Lindley and Roger Whitham Unleash your creativity as your body becomes the brush on an AI-powered canvas. Using shadows and light, conjure mesmerising visuals, dance, play and lose yourself in a dreamlike visual world. Become a digital alchemist and puppet master of light and dark, Shadowplay blurs the line between human and machine creativity. No two moments will ...
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Peddie’s Chocolate Shop
By: Illuminos In 1950 Illuminos’s Grandfather, Bob Peddie, opened a chocolate shop at 191 Blackburn Road, Accrington. With secret recipes from his friend the Swiss Chocolatiers Marius Matti and Henry Clottu, the shop brought moments of delight and joy to Accrington through the many cardboard boxes of confectionary wonders to be discovered in the shop window. Now 75 years later, in ...
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Mycelium - Living Connections
5pm - 10pm The Storey GardensBy: Stevie Thompson Mycelium Network: Living Connections is an interactive light installation that mimics the ephemeral intelligence of fungal networks beneath our feet. Activated by touch or proximity, the fibre optic threads glow and pulse in response, creating fleeting traces of interaction. As visitors move through the space, they become part of a living system — one that remembers momentarily, then ...
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Monster!
5pm - 10pm Judges' LodgingsBy: Christopher Harrisson Composer: Jack Drewry Monster! is a mischievous, interactive projection-mapping adventure from award-winning artist Christopher Harrisson. Strange, brightly coloured creatures have taken over the Judges’ Lodgings, peering out from the windows. They might look mean and scary, but don’t be fooled; these monsters are all about fun, and they want you to join them! Audiences will have ...
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Molecular Clouds
5pm - 10pm Lancaster Castle WallBy: Daksha Patel Commissioned by: Light Up The North Illumine CREATIVE TEAM: George Harris – Producer Chris Ball – Creative Technologist James Hamilton – Sound Artist Andrew Crofts – Technical Consultant This interactive projection reveals invisible greenhouse gases as ephemeral and colourful molecular forms. It invites audiences to reach out and ‘touch’ them, thereby removing them from the atmosphere. Molecular Clouds aims to give ...
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Forged In Water
5pm - 10pm Lancaster CanalBy: Limbic Cinema Originally commissioned by We Shine, Portsmouth 2024 CREATIVE TEAM: Music by Phoebé Guillemot (aka RAMZi) Forged in Water is an audio-visual installation that explores the surreal world of artificial reefs. Holographic-style visuals depicting human-made structures beneath the ocean are revealed on transparent, airborne water particles, creating an ethereal and immersive display. Created by Limbic Cinema and music artist ...
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Fading
5pm - 10pm Williamson ParkBy: Sophie Laly FADING # is a video installation featuring the appearance of a house, projected on a scale of 1 in a landscape. The projection takes place at dusk, right in the landscape, whatever it may be: trees, bushes… domesticated or not. Twilight reveals the subtle metamorphosis of the landscape: light fades, night falls, the house appears, and disappears again at ...
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Dear Joan…
5pm - 10pm Dalton SquareBy: imitating the dog CREATIVE TEAM: Video Design: Simon Wainwright Composer: James Hamilton As nighttime falls, and the clock tick-tocks inescapably on, an old man sits at his writing desk, penning a letter. It’s a reply to an avid fan, one of thousands of letters like this that he has written. He begins, ‘Dear Joan…’ But he is interrupted ...
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By The Light of Our Losses
5pm - 10pm The Dukes Moor Space, Moor LaneBy: idontloveyouanymore This project has been commissioned by Light Up Lancaster, The Space, and by The Dukes as part of Our Freedom Project. CREATIVE TEAM: Created by idontloveyouanymore Sound Design by WeMakeAudio By The Light of Our Losses is a brand new art installation by award winning art studio idontloveyouanymore. The artwork collects real losses from real ...
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Blink and You Miss It
5pm - 10pm Lancaster PrioryBy: 2099 Studios, leo&hyde CREATIVE TEAM: Leo Mercer – Creative Director Sam Gee – Animator Dan Mawson – Sound Designer Joseph Doubtfire – Illustrator This Light Up Lancaster, leo&hyde (‘they were people first’, 2023) return with a breathtaking celebration of swifts, the sky-dancing birds whose arrival marks the start of summer in Lancaster. Inside the Priory, encounter a joyful, immersive experience of ...
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Market Square Food Hub
5pm - 10pm Market SquareHosted By: FoodFutures: North Lancashire’s Sustainable Food Network foodfutures.org.uk Visit the beautifully lit Market Square and enjoy the wide range of hot food, cakes and drinks on offer from a local street food market. Grab something to eat and drink from the stalls or surrounding shops, sit in our outdoor dining space and enjoy live music from ...
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