Light Night in Nottingham 2023

That last stretch of Winter after Christmas and New Year’s often seems a never-ending stretch of cold weather, January blues and long, dark nights. Winter Wonderlands and pantomimes have been replaced by hunkering down for nights in front of the telly. Luckily, the return of Nottingham Light Night for a 15^th year brings us a free weekend festival of art, sound and community culture served as an exciting beacon in the midst of a long winter.

We joined the busy city centre crowds, map-in-hand (or phone) to ‘see the light’. Asthere were 31 individual and immersive instillations around town it would be hard doing justice to each, so this is a highlight of what was on offer.

The night started with ‘Pulse’ which transformed Old Market Square into a futuristic vortex of choreographed light and sound by creative team Loop. Families walked through the 12 mirrored rings with an impressive 14,000 programmed LEDs of pulsing colour, a visceral and otherworldly experience that had people entranced toward it.

One of the centrepieces of this year’s Light Night, Pulse on Old Market Square is a huge tunnel of light made up of thousands of LEDs!

Walk through and take in the sci fi vibes 🚀
@mynottingham @itsinnottingham pic.twitter.com/tEUrC1ojtU

— Visit Notts (@VisitNotts) February 3, 2023

Leaving the journey of 'Pulse' and back into the real world, other instillations through town were a diverse celebration of culture and emotive artwork. 'Evanescent and Neon Dogs' (pictured below) brought out feelings of simple childlike wonder while the performances on offer at Binks Yard and Trinity Square were a festival of lively local music and dance.

Alongside entertainment and excitement, there was also education. Re-Move and Art Matters brought in the artistic work of young people across Nottinghamshire to discuss themes of racism, climate change, war and identity in thought-provoking displays. There was a lot of ‘buzz’ around immersive installation 'The Nectary' (pictured below), where people could step inside glowing flowers created with various recycled packaging and alive with the buzz of recorded insects, offering a natural contrast to the other-worldly 'Pulse'.

All this and more owed to a superb showcase of Nottingham’s vibrant community culture. A free, fully accessible event for people of all ages across the city centre which could be easily explored by tram but was also great fun on foot, with warm drinks and snacks on offer at familiar Winter market stalls throughout. It was great to see Nottingham alive on a dark February night with some colourful reminders that Spring is on the way. If you missed the fun of Light Night, there’s plenty more to mark the calendar before its return next year.

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This blog was written by Adam Pink, Marketing Intern at Visit Nottinghamshire.