Lightpool Festival 2022
Blackpool’s award-winning Lightpool Festival is back with extraordinary free-to-see entertainment from the 14-29 October 2022.
Lightpool Festival 2022
A festival of light and performance in Blackpool, 14-29 October 2022
Showcasing a spectacular array of international works from France and Netherlands and premiering new artwork never seen before in the UK.
Lightpool Festival 2022
Blackpool’s award-winning Lightpool Festival is back with extraordinary free-to-see entertainment from the 14-29 October 2022.
This year’s amazing light festival comprises of 16 nights of pure exhilarating spectacle, providing an intoxicating mix of light-based art installations, stunning live performances, family-friendly activities, and 3D projection shows.
Showcasing a spectacular array of international works from France and Netherlands and exclusively premiering new artwork never seen before in the UK, this year’s event promises to be the most visually spectacular light festival ever!
Embark on a magical journey and explore interactive exhibits, immersive light installations and enjoy enchanted evenings strolling along the illuminated art trails and mesmeric light projections along the promenade and town centre. Enjoy the ambiance and atmosphere of the town’s outdoor spaces and iconic buildings transformed by spectacular light works and projects and experience the town lit up like never before.
pROGRAMME
Fit2Glow
October
Lightpool Festival in partnership with Blackpool Football Club Community Trust are to hold UV Football events for Blackpool Year 2 Primary Schools and Blackpool Academy, during October.
Teams from local schools and the academy will don neon bibs, glow in the dark accessories for the 5-a-side competition, in an innovative and fun-filled event.
100 Local Lanterns
October
All ages are invited to take part in a drop-in lantern-decorating workshop at Blackpool’s newest creative venue The Old Electric (Springfield Rd, FY1 1QW) 4-6pm on Mondays during October (4,11,18,25) with artist Janine Walker.
All lanterns will then be installed to form an immersive community exhibition inside the theatre at the venue and everyone is invited to come along and enjoy this light up wintery wonderland from 6-10pm Wednesday 27-Friday 29 as part of Lightpool Festival.
Aqualux Tour
15-17 October
Driven by an illuminated one-of-a-kind Peterbilt owned by Fox Bros., the artwork will be touring the streets of Blackpool, bringing Lightpool Festival up close and personal to residents and visitors alike, 15-17 October 2022.
Check visitblackpool.com/lightpoolfestival for routes
Lumidogs
27 October
Bark by ‘pup’ular demand! LumiDogs returns for Lightpool 2022
We are hosting a series of make & create workshops across Blackpool and inviting dog owners and their pooches to get involved.
Join us for a FREE workshop in a dog friendly & relaxed environment. Bring yourself and your four legged companion along to one of our workshops and our creative workshop leader will guide and assist you into making your dog’s very own Lumi jacket!
Illuminated Tram Parade
27 October
The Illuminated Tram Parade will celebrate Blackpool’s unique illuminated tramway history and presents a wonderful opportunity to witness and enjoy Blackpool’s dazzling, historic collection of illuminated tramcars.
Live entertainment will also be buzzing along the glittering streets of Blackpool as back by popular demand are Spark!, the original and best LED drummers. Illuminated giant puppets will also be joining the parade adding a wow factor and showcasing content never seen before by audiences in Blackpool.
Carnival Magic
24 October
An exhilarating menagerie of illuminated Carnival will hit the Tower Ballroom for an electrifying showcase of music, puppetry and dance. Internationally recognised Carnival performers will present a showstopper over 30 minutes, bringing a diverse melting pot of Carnival magic.
From giant hand-crafted puppets to stunning illuminated dancers, there will be something for all the family.
Tickets are required for this free to attend event, available from:
lightpoolfestival.eventbrite.co.uk
100 Stories High
5 & 11 October
Theatre company and projection specialists imitating the dog, along with composer James Hamilton, are making a beautiful new piece of work at Lightpool Festival; and they’re looking for music-loving residents from the area to take part.
You will be joining other local people to form a choir to perform live at the event, alongside the projection.
You don’t need to have a lot of experience of musical or singing ability – just lots of enthusiasm. If you can make a noise, they want to hear from you!
Leap Wokshops
14-17 November
A free workshop week for artists who want to develop skills in projection-mapping, led by imitating the dog, held at Lightworks, the home of Blackpool Illuminations.
Participants will learn about imitating the dog’s approach to site-specific projection mapping work, from storyboarding, through basic animation and projection mapping techniques.
To find out more, visit imitatingthedog.co.uk/project/leap-blackpool Applications close at 10am on Monday 31 October.
The Art Trail
Nightly, 14–29 October, 6pm to 10pm
The Lightpool Festival Art Trail is a self-guided tour over 16 nights. Recognisable indoor and outdoor spaces are transformed by spectacular artworks and captivating performances by local, national and international artists.
Tower Projections
Blackpool Illuminations
The Blackpool Tower Projections transform The Blackpool Tower into a sea of light, colour and sound, as a stunning, digitally mapped multi-media show is projected onto this iconic building
There are five individual projection shows, including the three headline shows .
Lumination
Lightpool
Blackpool Illuminations, frequently described as The ‘greatest free light show on earth’ has been a major part of Blackpool’s attraction since 1879 when they were described as ‘Artificial Sunshine’.
In this exhibition, get up close and personal with some favourites from the collection.
The Nature Takeover
Ant Dickinson and Al Johnson
Vines, flowers, fruit, fungus and creatures take over St.Johns Church as it is reclaimed by nature as a large scale, playful, rhythmic projection.
Bold and colourful hand drawn animations dance over the building’s surface, synchronised to music taking the audience on a journey in to the interconnected rhythms of the natural world.
Illuminate
Grand Theatre
Blackpool Grand Theatre present ILLUMINATE, a short film, soundscape and accompanying artworks co-created with Blackpool’s children during a year of creative activity exploring and celebrating their brilliance & resilience.
Butterflies
Anne Bennett
Butterflies have different meanings to different people. ‘Butterfly Cluster’ by Anne Bennett is inspired by an open cluster of stars in Scorpius. The installation consists of over one thousand six hundred butterflies which appear to have landed in Blackpool.
Each butterfly has a unique pattern and is hand-made from an eco-friendly resin. The butterflies hold a secret: in the darkness, and under UV light, each shines brightly with a different design (not visible in the daylight).
A SHINE commission in partnership with Light Up The North
Norman
Lewis Sykes
Meet the interactive light and sound installation NORMAN - an old school ‘smart’ screen but with attitude.
The work is an artistic simulation of the behaviours you might encounter now from an ‘intelligent’ machine built to explore human-computer interaction as conceived in the late 1960s. NORMAN feels somewhat threatened and undermined by advances in modern technology - its questionable antics might be understood as the response of an ‘intelligent’ machine in crisis.
A SHINE commission in partnership with Light Up The North
Moon Flowers
Liverpool Lantern Company
Experience the mesmeric Moon Flowers and be gently hypnotised by their colour changing transformations.
Big Bird
Blackpool Illuminations
The 1 tonne pigeon was originally created for the Museum of London’s immersive experience Beasts of London, created in partnership with Guildhall School of Music & Drama, but it will spread its wings and head to Blackpool for Lightpool Festival.
100 Stories High
Imitating The Dog
As a man leaves his house for the final time, a flood of memories unfolds. Personal moments collide with world events as the old building shows its history and bares its soul. imitating the dog mix beautiful animation with live performance in this musical installation about memory and time.
A Lightpool and Light Up Lancaster co-commission
Seeing In The Dark
Imitating The Dog
Peer into a cinema from the past in Seeing In The Dark, an evocative new digital installation from
imitating the dog.
Inspired by the Cinema Memory and the Digital Archive project at Lancaster University, thisimmersive piece sees scale models, original compositions, recorded reproductions of heritage films and echoing voices from the archive collide to transform a simple box into a mesmerising ‘memory machine’.
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Flux
Collectif Scale
Flux is a kinetic light installation to contemplate. By describing complex twists and turns, the object composed of lines of light evolves smoothly with the music. It navigates between poetic states and, conversely, frenetic rotation rhythms. After having tamed video and light in their previous works, the SCALE collective is now exploring the world of movement and robotics. With Flux, SCALE sculpts a living and original object.
Flux is composed of 48 dynamic light lines, 1.5 m long, spaced 40 cm apart, motorised and controlled in real time. The formal multiplication of these lines coupled with micro variations of phases, temporal delays, speeds and amplitudes allows us to sculpt a 20m long object, alive and evolving with a cyclic back and forth movement.
Drop of Light
Gijs van Bon
Just another day in the life of a drop of light: it dances, sways, twirls, flutters, hides, jolts and plays. This magical installation combines displays of fluorescent liquid and ultra-violet laser lights to breathe life into a drop of light, drawing the viewer in through all the senses.
Dramatic in its execution, Drop of Light occupies a unique space spanning sculpture, animation, art, technology and a lot of mathematics! The idea for this installation originated with the wish to create something never seen before: shapes projected in mid-air. The creation of Drop of Light required a coming together of artistic, technological and scientific specialists and a fusion of their visions and experiences, but, as artist Gijs van Bon states: the magic was always there.
One Way Or Another
Studio Little Lost Robot
Don’t give up on future generations.
Work together, keep the faith.
One way or another, hazards ahead can be overcome.
You can’t stop hope.
A set of revised road signs giving humanity a shared direction for the future.
A co-commission with Wigand & Leigh Light Night and Light Up Lancaster
Brilliance
This light and sound show was the first of its kind in the UK. Based on a continuous ribbon spiralling in and out of the ground, its six metal arches criss-cross Birley Street with custom-designed luminaires.
We Are Blackpool
Phil Holmes for Lightpool Festival
Representing Blackpool’s vibrant local community, with a bespoke soundtrack, We Are Blackpool is a once in a lifetime snapshot of soulful reflections and poignant, personal perspectives.
Honest, raw, real. Words weaved with wonder by a poetic maestro.
Aiming to give everyone a magical glimpse into the special place Blackpool is, its unique history and its diverse and eclectic communities.
The result is a warm and witty poem, showcasing the towns people, passions, and cultural credentials.
Watch the Film
The Blackpool Way
Showtown / LeftCoast
During lockdown, LeftCoast, Showtown and House of Wingz invited the public to submit original dance moves for a new social dance called ‘The Blackpool Way’. This dance was captured in iconic locations across the Town, filmed by WASH studios with music by Callum Harvie. See the film on Victoria Street.
Crystallized
StudioTheoriz
CRYSTALLIZED is an audio-visual sculpture inspired by the bismuth crystal. Inside it, we use the principle of volumetric
projection and video to illuminate its loins.
The installation, with its geometric proportions based on crystalline materials, diffuses a soundscape and video reflections. It invites the public to contemplate it, wander around it and
interact with it.
Neon
Grundy Art Gallery
Blackpool Light of My Life
Artist : Chila Kumari Singh Burman MBE
Tragic / Brave, 2019
Artist - Tony Heaton
A Bigger Ripple, 2021
Artist - Tony Heaton
Tower Light Show
Greg McLenahan
Blackpool Tower is emblazoned with a glowing heart, and 25,000 lights on the structure. Join us for this sensational light show, as we bring the Tower to life with a sound and light spectacular. This brand new featured light show runs every night during Lightpool Festival at 7pm, 8pm, 9pm and 10pm
Power The Tower
Can you pedal hard enough on our specially adapted light up bike, to generate enough power to light up our Blackpool Tower model?
Phil Holmes
Creative Director
This year’s amazing light festival comprises of 16 nights of pure exhilarating spectacle, providing an intoxicating mix of light-based art installations, stunning live performances, family-friendly activities, and 3D projection shows.
Showcasing a spectacular array of international works from France and Netherlands and exclusively premiering new artwork never seen before in the UK, this year’s event promises to be the most visually spectacular light festival ever!
Embark on a magical journey and explore interactive exhibits, immersive light installations and enjoy enchanted evenings strolling along the illuminated art trails and mesmeric light projections along the promenade and town centre. Enjoy the ambiance and atmosphere of the town’s outdoor spaces and iconic buildings transformed by spectacular light works and projects and experience the town lit up like never before.
The Lightpool Festival 2022 programme will be complemented by the world-famous Blackpool Illuminations, the Lightpool 3D projection shows, which will be projected each night on to the Blackpool Tower buildings.
We hope you can join us in making many wonderful memories over 16 nights of pure magic, music and illuminated magnificence – and it is all free!
Enjoy every marvellous minute and light up your life!