Light Night 2024

About

Friday 2 & Saturday 3 February 2024
Nottingham City Centre
From 5pm until late
FREE event

Illuminate your imagination as you explore the city centre, from Old Market Square to Binks Yard, and from Sneinton Market to Nottingham Castle. You can see over 30 immersive and interactive light-based installations, performances, and activities after dark, for free.

Old Market Square will be dappled with light from Our Beating Heart – a rotating sculpture featuring thousands of mirror fragments. The installation will accompany a beating heart soundtrack and mash-up of heart-themed songs produced by local DJs Jez Prince X HAZE, with additional lighting designed by Luminism.

This is Loop – who brought PULSE to last year’s event – have created Geist, a brand-new large-scale light installation inspired by the elusive neutrino, or ‘ghost particle’. Geist is making its international debut at Canary Wharf in London before it heads to Sneinton Market Square.

At Nottingham Castle, visitors can see a collection of neon lights created by Chila Kumari Burman, whose work has recently been shown in Manchester, Brighton, and London’s Tate Britain. Additionally, an art exhibit created by Bluecoat Aspley Academy students will be projected onto the walls of Nottingham Castle, near the Robin Hood Statue.

Tom Dale Company returns to Nottingham Contemporary with UBX: SUCCESSION – an immersive, audio-visual, genre-breaking dance performance with exclusive new music from producer ITAL TEK.

There will be many more exciting live events across the city as part of Light Night, including a selection of pop-up carnival performances presented by City Arts, bringing colour and energy to the city’s new civic space outside Nottingham Central Library. Music and belly dancing performances will also be taking place at Binks Yard, illuminated by the Canal & River Trust’s Waterfall of Lights cascading down from the roof.

St. Mary’s Church is hosting another multi-sensory experience called Standing Ground. Using AI-generated image sequences, it explores our relationship with the natural world. 

Another highlight will be a six-metre-tall inflatable light sculpture, The World Has Gone Pear Shaped, on Colin Street near Nottingham Central Library. Using NASA’s high-resolution 3D images, the illuminated project highlights how humankind is altering the earth and is a playful take on the dystopias of our time.

Join the William Booth Birthplace Museum and see William's house in candlelight! Just a few tickets remaining. Join us Friday 2nd Feb for This event is FREE, but booking is essential. Book at: 0115 979 3464.

There are more installations, exhibitions, and activities to explore across the city centre, including Green’s Windmill, Nottingham Trent University’s Newton Building, and Nottingham College Art School.

In line with the city’s ambition to be carbon neutral by 2028 (known as CN28), the majority of installations for Light Night are powered by zero carbon electricity using Nottingham City Council’s green energy tariff. The Council is working collaboratively with businesses, residents, and public sector and community organisations to deliver significant reductions in Nottingham's carbon emissions, in order to play our part in tackling the climate crisis.

Light Night is produced by Nottingham City Council and It’s in Nottingham – the city’s business improvement district. The event is funded by It’s in Nottingham, the National Lottery through Arts Council England, and the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. Cultural organisations across the city also support the event.

Plan Your Visit

Get the most out of your trip into the city by downloading the free It’s in Nottingham app on iOS and Android platforms. The new app features a map and information about the main city centre artworks and interactive events, plus cosy restaurants, bars and coffee shops to warm you up in between.

Printed event guides will be available from the Tourism Centre on Smithy Row, and at key locations on the day.

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