The Lumiere festival is over until 2017 and it is reported 200k visitors attended the event in Durham over the 4 days 12th - 15th November. So I thought it would be nice for those who didn't get a chance to go or are not local I wanted to share some of the highlights and my favourite snaps.
This event only comes around once every 2 years so when the date is set people start to look forward to it and register for updates. There is a release of 'tickets' 1 month before which are 'free' for those who want to go early 4.30 - 7.30pm but you have to collect from local spots around County Durham. But in addition to collecting in person this year you could order online via Ticketmaster for £1 per ticket then £2.95 postage fee... so a free tickets doesn't end up so free if you are wanting to go early on a particular day, it suited me to do this.
I went to the event on the Friday so I booked the day off work and used the Durham Park n Ride but chose to go into Durham early at 3pm so we had no problem getting parked (apparently most were full by 5pm) then the bus journey was £2 each return and we headed to the Town Hall to pick up a brochure / map for a donation of £1. We then went for a pre drink at Whiskey River bar and of course an Espresso Martini was in order while we planned our route.
The event officially started at 4.30pm when it was just dark enough to appreciate the lights. I knew it was popular so we started with Mysticete which was a whale projection in the river which could be seen from the Elvet Bridge. There were blasts of water to demonstrate the movement and sounds were used to demonstrate the whale in the water too including usual whale noises you would expect.
We then walked up to the Cathedral to watch 'The World Machine' light projection which told the origin of the universe. It did go on for nearly 10 minutes and it was constantly moving but it wasn't my favourite.
You then needed to queue to get into the Cathedral to see Complex Meshes 2015 which the pattern changed depending on how many people walked past a sensor.
Then the next one we saw was just outside was the Litre of Light which was made of plastic bottles contributed by a number of schools in County Durham. This was a great touch to get children in the area involved in the event and be proud they could contribute to one of the features.
Garden of light in the Cathedral Gardens was lovely and pretty there were so many to see and it was hard to get a picture of all of them at once.
After we left the gardens we went on a river walk which was lit by pretty strings of lights but I have to be honest it was a little scary down there as the river was higher than usual and running pretty fast.
On the walk we were able to see Rainbow River, Fogscape and Fools paradise.
The last one I have to tell you about was my favourite of the festival called the Cloud.
6000 light bulbs which from a distance looks like a rain cloud, but close up the rain is actually chains to turn the light bulbs on and off. It was very popular with all ages so we all clearly wished we were 5 again.
We spent 3 hours walking around the event and in the cold and rain this was long enough. I did miss out seeing some of the event but I had had enough it got a bit too busy for me after 7.30pm.
Love Miss K xx
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Looks like a fantastic event, great pictures! Jess x
ReplyDelete:-) Thanks Jess
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