Bristol Light Festival

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Bristol City Centre BID is bringing an exciting new event to the city’s annual festival calendar from Friday 28th Feb – Sunday 1st March 2020

The Bristol Light Festival will bring colour, light and play to city centre spaces with a series of commissions from local and internationally renowned artists.

From Friday 28th Feb – Sunday 1st March 2020, between 5pm-11pm, the Bristol Light Festival will showcase renowned international light artists alongside Bristol talent across six carefully selected locations to create a trail through the city centre.  

Find out more about Bristol Light Festival, including maps, nearby food & drink and more

The Light Festival will take visitors along several different routes from Cabot Circus to Queen Square, via locations such as Castle Park, Harbourside and the City Centre, discovering different installations along the way. At each location, visitors will be able to see, experience and enjoy light art installations that are visiting the South West for the first time as well as brand-new installations created exclusively for the Bristol Light Festival. 

Neighbours
Have you ever wondered what is happening in the other windows around Banksy’s famous Well Hung Lover on Park Street? Four Bristol-based Graffiti artists and illustrators to show us what they think the neighbours are up to next door. Neighbours is a celebration of Bristol’s residents and how we interact with each other as a diverse community.

Frame Perspective
A sound and light piece in Millennium Square, created by acclaimed French visual artist Olivier Ratsi, consisting of a 30-metre-long installation of huge repeating illuminated frames. 

MilkBottle
A specially commissioned series of light sculptures by Jack Wimperis, created to raise awareness about single-use plastics. MilkBottle Cages will see a sculpture of thousands of recycled milk bottles in Quakers Friars in Cabot Circus. Each bottle is embedded addressable LEDs embedded into it to interact with visitors. Milkbottle Screen, the second in the series, is a 4 x 2.5m screen of 600 one pint hanging milk bottles which will be situated in Castle Park. The artwork will illuminate the route to Castle Bridge, guiding visitors along the Light Festival trail.

Nimbes & Nebulae
Nimbes is a fulldome piece created by artist Joanie Lemercier in partnership with composer, James Ginzburg. The 15-minute show will be screened in the Planetarium at We The Curious. The immersive piece will be immediately followed by Nebulae, which will take visitors on a unique voyage into the cosmos, exploring galaxies, constellations and witnessing cosmic events from the past.

Pink Enchantment
This interactive light installation will transform Castle Bridge, immersing those walking across it in an ethereal pink light as they cross the water. Activated by people walking across the bridge, bursts of pink fog are omitted, and lights illuminate the way, creating an immersive experience which inspires and intrigues audiences both on the bridge and from afar. This installation was created by former UWE graduate and current resident at Bristol's Pervasive Media Studio, Tine Bech.

Wave-Field Variation Q  
A collection of eight giant, illuminated see-saws in Queen Square - as the see saws are played on, lights and music are activated. Visitors are invited to partner up and be a co-creator of their own piece of art! Created by Lateral Office and CS Design with soundscape by Mitchell Akiyama.

Overheard in Bristol
A four-foot neon sign will be installed by Cascade steps on St Augustine’s Parade with a famous Bristolian phrase shining brightly in the heart of the city: Cheers Drive! The festival will also be doing a callout for Bristolian phrases for next year's sign, so get your thinking caps on...

The final installation is a collaboration between a collection of local artists are working together to create a piece titled ‘Neighbours’, to  pay homage to the city’s street art scene. All will be revealed on the opening night of the festival, Thursday 27th February.

Wildlife on the Waterfront
A bespoke projection created by Bristol charity, Send a Cow, in partnership with Bristol’s award-winning Limbic Cinema. The piece, which tells the tale of the people and wildlife of Uganda’s oldest national park will be projected onto the Arnolfini at part of the Living with Wildlife appeal to protect people and wildlife in Uganda.

Maps of the various routes will be available online and from festival volunteers and there will also be free guided tours, which can be booked through the event website. As well as volunteers along the routes, a bespoke lit information point will be built in Queen Square for visitors to drop-in with their enquiries.

Find out more about Bristol Light Festival

See our foodie guide to the festival

Across the weekend, discover Code Blue is a light installation that is more like an emergency call. Presented by Dareshack and unofficially part of the Bristol Light Festival.

This is the first of a three-year series brought to you by Bristol City Centre Business Improvement District (BID), in partnership with Bristol City Council and The University of the West of England.  The Festival is being delivered, curated and produced by Bristol based creative directors, Katherine Jewkes and Vashti Waite.