Lightpool Festival 2019

A festival of light and fire in Blackpool, 11-26 October 2019..

Lightpool Festival 2019

A festival of light and fire in Blackpool, 11-26 October 2019.

Blackpool’s award-winning Lightpool Festival returns for 2019, taking Blackpool’s town centre and glittering Golden Mile into the realms of the light fantastic!

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Lightpool Festival 2019

The festival gives you the chance to immerse yourself in an extraordinary universe of live performance, art trail adventures and spectacular installations including a giant Earth and Sun.

We invite you to bring your family, friends and dogs to join in our LumiDogs and Carnival of Lights Parade and boogie along to our exhilarating evening of Carnival Magic with firebreathing beasts, robots and stunning illuminated dancers.

Enjoy our family-friendly workshops, spellbinding interactive public talks and get up close and personal with legendary storytellers Mama G and Garzagle the Post Alien from Pluto in our community-led, light-themed activities and free events.

Look out too for bespoke pieces of art and installations by contemporary international artists, designers and architects that will light up the resort.

The programme will be complemented by the Lightpool 3D shows, which will be projected on to the front of The Blackpool Tower buildings each night throughout the festival.

It all adds up to 15 nights of magic, music and illuminated magnificence.

Everything in the festival is free thanks to the generosity of sponsors and partners, Arts Council England, VisitBlackpool, LeftCoast, the Town Centre BID, Access Fylde Coast, Northern Rail and The Blackpool Tower.

pROGRAMME

Fit2Glow

September & October

Through the Illuminations season we have been working with communities across Fylde and Wyre. Returning for 2019, Fit2Glow, in partnership with Blackpool FC Community Trust, has seen hundreds of primary school children take part in glow-in-the dark football tournaments.

When I Grow Up

September & October

Lightpool Festival in partnership with Primary Futures, have developed an exciting way for children in Year 5 Primary school to think about their future career potential. Following on from the Schools participation in the Primary Futures programme, the children will draw their interpretation of ‘What they want to be when I grow up’.

One drawing from each school will be chosen to be made into an illuminated glow box, which will then be displayed in Blackpool Town Centre, as part of the Town Centre Art Trail for Lightpool Festival 2019.  The designs from each school will also be made into a ‘collage’ poster to be displayed in each school

Lumidogs

12 & 13 October

Does your dog light up your life? Well now it’s time to return the favour! We are looking for the most ‘fur’bulous local dogs and owners to take part in our LumiDogs workshops.

Dance around the world

Thursday 17 and 21 -24 October

Dance in the UK’s most feted ballroom beneath Luke Jerram’s spectacular Earth installation, Gaia. 

Late at the library

Friday 18 October

Tonight, we are offering something a little different at Central Library, as we dim the lights, decorate the bookcases and bring you an evening of light engagement. 

Carnival of the Lights

Thursday, 24 October

The Carnival of the Lights returns for its 3rd year, to celebrate Blackpool’s unique tramway history, this Parade is a tribute to the rich heritage of our Illuminated Trams. 

Carnival Magic

Friday, 25 October

An exhilarating menagerie of illuminated Carnival characters will hit the streets of Blackpool for an electrifying showcase of music, puppetry and dance. 

Adonias by Pyronix

Saturday, 26 October

Belgian performance troupe Pyronix invite you to immerse yourself in a fantastic universe where fire is at the heart of an endless struggle. 

The Art Trail

Nightly, 11–26 October, 6pm to 10.30pm

The Lightpool Festival Art Trail is a self-guided tour over 15 nights. Recognisable indoor and outdoor spaces are transformed by spectacular artworks and captivating performances by local, national and international artists.
Lightpool Festival 2018
Critter Divided

Blackpool Illuminations

An Illumination’s favourite from 2003 re-imagined in homage to Damien Hirst.

Lightpool Festival 2019
Spaceman

Blackpool Illuminations

First designed by Alan Cockcroft in 1970 to celebrate the moon landings, a replica of the Neil Armstrong's space suit

Lightpool Festival 2019
Brilliance

Six metal arches criss-cross Birley Street with custom-designed luminaires.

Lightpool Festival 2019
Tiffany Umbrellas

Blackpool Illuminations

The Tiffany Delights road section, originally designed in 1999 by Graham Ogden, reimagined to illuminate 16 umbrellas.

Lightpool Festival 2019
Emotisphere

Cordwainer Bird Jr.

A blend of the Blackpool-style seaside amusement fun machine with the latest RGB technology. Make the ball come to life and discover your inner love quotient. Commissioned for Lightpool 2018.

Lightpool Festival 2019
SUN

Alex Rinsler / Prof. Robert Walsh

a suspended, self-contained sphere, 7m across, with a digitally combined movie of NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory

Lightpool Festival 2019
Gaia

Luke Jerram

Gaia is a touring artwork by UK artist Luke Jerram. Measuring seven metres in diameter, Gaia features 120dpi detailed NASA imagery of the Earth’s surface. The artwork provides the opportunity to see our planet on this scale, floating in three dimensions.

Lightpool Festival 2019
When I Grow Up

Primary Futures

A project with children in Year 5 Primary school to think about their future career potential

Lightpool Festival 2019
Art Is Your Human Right

Bob and Roberta Smith

Illuminated words hang at street level in Houndshill Shopping Centre arcade, from one of the UKs leading artists. Commissioned by LeftCoast and Blackpool Illuminations for Lightpool 2016.

Lightpool Festival 2019
Tunnel of Light

A family-friendly immersive walk-through sculptural tunnel of light.

Lightpool Festival 2019
Graffit Rock

Mozza - Created as part of the inaugural FAM festival 2019, graffiti artist Mozza was inspired to create these two giant sticks of rock.

Lightpool Festival 2019
Portrait of Self

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen

A deliberately and stylishly surreal statement that suggests that the self-revelatory image of a self-portrait is not always as honest as it seems. A new commission for Lightpool 2018.

Lightpool Festival 2019
Wavefield

L4 Studios

Wave-Field is a series of eight giant see saws that light up and make music as you bounce. This magical piece has been brought from Canada by LeftCoast and Lightpool Festival to bring a playground to St John’s Square as part of this year’s programme. 

Lightpool Festival 2019
Talking Heads

Impossible Arts

As dusk falls, three large translucent heads appear. Looking a bit like the giant Easter Island Heads, but each one of these moves, blinks, and seems almost alive - as they are all magically animated by projections. 

Lightpool Festival Blackpool
Contact Us

Phil Holmes

Creative Director

2019 will see the Lightpool Festival, returning to the town, celebrating Blackpool’s unique relationship with light.

Building on the successes of the inaugural Lightpool Festival 2016; from October 11 to 26 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, 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.

The Lightpool festival will take place in the spiritual home of illuminations. By running during the October half-term, 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 2019 will offer a wonderful opportunity for whole families to experience something different.