A Festival of Light
Durham was set ablaze, with the arrival of Lumiere...
Over four days (12th - 15th November) around 75,000 people poured into the city of Durham for Lumiere festival. 50 UK and International artists transformed Durham’s historic landmarks, city streets, gardens and riverways into a breathtaking nocturnal landscape of magical happenings.
As the mist rose from the river and the streets darkened, thousands took to the streets to see one of the biggest light shows in England. The highlight, for many, was the transformation of the exterior of Durham Cathedral, into a phenomenal mix of lighting, slow moving projection and sound. Whilst eery swinging pendulums inside the cathedral and neon creations of drawings by Durham prisoners in the gardens, to a stunning shining dress lit up in the otherwise desolate window and a pink neon ladder reaching into the sky, seen through a gridded gate kept visitors intrigued, See the breathtaking images.
Sky Arts Support
Lumiere was the second project in the Sky Arts Artichoke Season, produced by our major arts partner, Artichoke and is part of The Bigger Picture and Sky Arts commitment to bring the arts to more people on air, online and on the streets across the UK.
On screen
If you missed out - don’t worry. Sky Arts went behind the scenes at the festival to shoot 10 short films about the artists and a 30 minute documentary which will be shown on Sky Arts on Tuesday 8 December on Sky Arts 1 HD and repeated throughout December. For details and please visit www.skyarts.co.uk/lumiere (opens in a new window)
Sky Arts - On the Street
Sky Arts also commissioned Philips to create Lumalive T-shirts for stewards on the ground, which incorporated cutting-edge technology that were alight with unique designs incorporating the Sky Arts logo. Sky Arts hosted portable refreshment vans at the festival, providing sustainably sourced tea, coffee and hot chocolate to warm travelers on the trail with proceeds going to our Rainforest Recue campaign http://rainforestrescue.sky.com/ (opens in a new window)
Behind the scenes
Developing the Durham’s cultural offerings
Lumiere forms part of North East England’s world-class programme of festivals and events, developed by culture10. Supported by Durham County Council, Lumiere is also a measure of Durham’s scale of commitment to developing the city’s cultural offering for its communities and visitors, underlined by the recent announcement of its intention to bid to be the first UK City of Culture in 2013.
The artists
In the tradition of the greatest international festivals of light, Lumiere set Durham ablaze, picking out and transforming the landmarks, streets, river and bridges of the city in new and unimagined ways. Artists included the British-based collective United Visual Artists, international artists Ron Haselden, Simon Corder and Daan Roosegaarde, projection artist Ross Ashton, eminent lighting designer Mark Major, London-based studio Creatmosphere, and French theatrical magicians Quidams, with a magical performance that will lead the audience through the city streets.