Lightpool Festival 2016 | 28 October until 2 November 2016.
6 nights, 35 installations, 6 large productions, a conference, to celebrate light, Blackpool, LightPool and Blackpool Illuminations
pROGRAMME
Events
Captain Kronos
A flying spaceship, aerial performance, pyro and rousing soundtrack, as well as illuminated procession and parade involving up to 100 people. Created to celebrate the closure of cult venue Kazimier in Liverpool, it’s next level performance appropriate for the launch of the festival.
I Waited
Elisa Artesero is a Light and Text Artist using installation to address themes of transience, the nature of happiness and hope. She has exhibited in the UK, France, Montenegro and the Faroe Islands. She is one of the top 5 Curator Choices for NOISE Festival 2014, selected from over 5,000 entries by Tim Marlow, Director of Artistic Programmes at the Royal Academy, London.
When The Red Rose
Wrapping a piece of architectural heritage of this famous resort in a protective bubble, is artist Steve Messam’s playful and surreal celebration of Blackpool’s unique seaside heritage. Commissioned by Marketing Lancashire
Polar
Featuring a whole host of breath-taking fire performances and an exploding piano, this show has been described as ‘thriller meets silent film’ and features a multi-talented cast of dancers, musicians and fire performers.
Light Lessons
A group of defracted beings will guide you through a darkened passage. Commissioned by LeftCoast and Blackpool Illuminations for LightPool 2016. Emma Allen resides between Sri Lanka and London, where she was born and raised.
She’s an internationally recognised and celebrated artist that is entirely self-taught, and produces work in a broad range of different mediums.
Parts of a Lighthouse
This classic light art installation sat in the nave of Blackpools' Sacred Heart Church, refracting light from its magnificent octagonal roof through tetrahedral prisms in kaleidoscopic shards to form a dazzling beautiful house made from beams of light, as per original script
Spark
The original and best LED drummers, Spark! Is a unique, captivating and outstanding show like no other! Five mysterious characters made of light and sound will take you on an extraordinary and mesmerising journey. High impact drumming and lovable musical arrangements, beautiful lighting design, dynamic choreography, dazzling costumes, and strong characters.
Mr Wilsons
Mr Wilson’s Second Liners form a traditional New Orleans brass band. However, this is no sombre occasion: Mr Wilson’s expend their collective musical talent paying homage to the diehard days of the Hacienda, 90s club culture and its greatest hero, Mr Tony Wilson.
Echelle
This lightwork originally commissioned for the Salisbury Festival is a visually stunning neon pink ladder that appears to be a stairway to heaven and will appear on St Johns church. The work has also toured to Canterbury, Rotherhithe, and Walworth.
Arts Is Your Human Right
The new commission Art Is Your Human Right by Bob and Roberta Smith, which will see illuminated words hanging at eye-catching locations around the town centre including the Council Office, The Grundy and Clifton Street.
Commandos Percu
Percussion, fire, lights, motion : pure energy From direct contact with the public, the huge sound box drives across the town. This human machine shows off its rhythm and drags the audience along a path punctuated with pyro surprises. Shouts, drums, sparkles: an exhilarating spiral!
Lumidogs
Produced by the LightPool production team and exclusive to LightPool Festival, Lumidogs is back and it’s bigger and better than ever before! An extravagant staged event featuring a star-studded cast of special guests, including the one and only Trip Hazard from Britain’s Got Talent! ‘Crufts meets Cabaret’, a Blackpool first.
Producer
Phil Holmes
2016 will see the inaugural LightPool Festival, celebrating Blackpool’s unique relationship with light.
With £48,000 of additional funding from the Arts Council’s National Lottery funded Grants for the Arts, the festival is the climax of the two year, £2 million LightPool project, funded by the Coastal Communities Fund with partners LeftCoast and Blackpool Council.
Building on the successes of the LightPool shows on the Blackpool Tower; from October 28 to November 2 the town centre will be transformed with a number of spectacular light art works, inspired by the buildings, history and people of the town.
To complement this we will run a programme of live performances each night, all related to light and fire, with talent coming from the UK and abroad. Fire with Tango, highly explosive percussion performances, illuminated parades and processions.
Light art festivals are a phenomenon spreading across the globe, and just in the North of England you may well have heard of Lumiere in Durham, Light Up Lancaster, Illuminating York, Light Night Leeds and many others.
Acts performing included French Compagnie Bilbobasso to perform Polar: ‘an explosive fable of fire and tango’ and the Worldbeaters will return with their smash hit Spark.
The LightPool festival will take place in the spiritual home of illuminations. By running for just a few days, the festival allows us to present different sorts of work. It means we can transform the town centre into a playground for people to explore. By being free to attend, the LightPool Festival 2016 will offer a wonderful opportunity for whole families to experience something different. A number of works will be made with different communities in Blackpool, telling stories about the town and the people who live here.
Winner of the Large Tourism Event Award at the Lancashire Tourism Awards 2017.
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