Throughout the winter months, I've been a hermit staying in at home most the time, keeping myself nice and warm. It's making me so lazy, so this week I forced myself to go out at night to brace the cold and see the annual light festival. There were 9 installations scattered around the city, plenty of walking in the cold. Let me take you on a tour of them.
Evenescent 6/10
The first one I visited is this collection of giant inflated bubbles located outside Bristol Cathedral. Visitors can walk around and under the bubble but not inside. That would have been quite awesome. I only spent a couple of minutes here.
Pulse 8/10
The next one was about 5 minutes walk away by the harbourside. It's a 40 meter long walkway made up of many rings lit up by more than 14 thousand LED lights. I like this a lot as it's a fully immersive audio and visual experience, with the lights changing colour as you walk through.
Swing song 7/10
Swings that glow in the dark! How enchanting! I saw them from quite far away and hurried over to go on them. Then I saw there was a long queue waiting. And it was all little children. Looks like I can only watch from the sides. If I could go on the swings, I'd definitely score this much higher!
The Nectary 8/10
The concept here is pretty simple but very effective. There are many giant flowers hanging upside down and visitors can walk inside the flower. When you stick your head inside the flower like I did, you can hear the bees buzzing and it feels like you are part of nature. All the flowers were very pretty and were of different colours and sizes.
Ascendance 9/10
After walking around a lot in the cold, the next installation inside the St Stephen's Church was very welcoming. An astronaut floating in space was projected on the church ceiling. He was drifting amongst flowers and butterflies and a beautiful soundtrack. The fact one is sitting inside a 13th century old church immersed in interstellar is such a surreal experience.
The Unfolding 10/10
Now we're walking a little further away from the city center. This light festival has opened my eyes to parts of the city and structures that I've never been before. The 12th century Temple being one of them. As I walked through, the ruins of a ceilingless church with perfectly preserved walls unfolded in front of me. Light beams shone up into the sky adding a missing roof back to this stunning structure. And to complete the installation, a enchanting piece of music played in the background creating a truly three dimensional experience. This was definitely my favourite installation out of them all.
Bristol is Always a Good Idea 4/10
Turns out it wasn't such a good idea after all. It was about 8 minutes walk away from the Temple Church, and the furthest away from the city center. We'd been walking for nearly two hours by now and were a little tired. It was so funny when we arrived and Hubby saw the installation, his immediate reaction was " Is this it??" followed by a long string of expletives 😂
Wildlight 7/10
The next installation was at an area by a group of residential, restaurants and office buildings. I noticed the BBC's Natural History Unit was here, very fitting as this was about wildlife. But, there was only a small TV screen, and some animals projected on a wall which the small kids were very happy to chase around. That's so meh. As I was leaving for the bridge back to the city center, there was this massive TV screen on the building by the river. Now this was more like it!! The wildlife footage was broadcast here and then suddenly they jumped across the river onto the wall on the other side of the river. What a genius creation!
Elysian 5/10
We're back at the city center now and the penultimate installation. This was some shimmery inflatable arches and you can walk around and through it. It was ok, but nothing too special.
Energence 8/10
The final light installation of the evening didn't look very interesting when I saw it. But never judge a book by its cover, and never go to the light festival by yourself. The trick here is you need to go inside, find a vacant window, and get someone to stand outside to take photos of you. I was so surprised when I saw the effects. What a very clever use of light and reflections, and a great way to round off the night.
I hope your enjoyed walking around the Bristol Light Festival with me. And let me know which was your favourite. Don't let my scoring influence you!
