• Swindon & Wiltshire Culture
• Thursday November 28 2024
• Author Name: Peter Davison

Giant mirrorball heart latest highlight of Bristol Light Festival

Just in time for Valentine’s Day selfies, a giant mirrorball heart is to feature at Bristol Light Festival 2025.

Our Beating Heart by Studio Vertigo is a revolving sculpture made up of 11,000 mirrored tiles. It will be one of the highlights of the festival, which runs from Friday, January 31 to Sunday, February 9.

Artist Lucy McDonnell, who created the installation with Stephen Newby, said: “Our Beating Heart is inspired by the idea of shared love and the disco ball’s ability to bring people together.

“The multi-faceted mirrored surface reflects the diversity of the crowd, creating a sense of unity and shared experience.

“Bristol is such a cultural hub, with a nightlife scene that is as inclusive and diverse as it gets, so this work feels like the perfect piece to showcase at Bristol Light Festival.”

Festival organisers today (Thursday) revealed three new installations that will appear at next year’s festival, joining the already-announced Somnius by Illumaphonium, The Whilers by Air Giants, and Ramandu’s Table by Bruce Munro – a flock of white flamingos, illuminated with an array of continually changing dawn hues.

Bruce Munro will be bringing two pieces to this year’s festival. The second is C-Scales. Initially designed for Sydney Harbour, the artwork – made up of 1,849 CDs and DVDs – serves as an exploration of how water absorbs and reflects light.

Bruce Munro said: “Both Sydney and Bristol have such strong connections to water, so it feels very natural that this artwork should get its first large-scale viewing at Bristol Light Festival.

“For the Bristol iteration, an array of animations will be projected onto a suspended façade of CDs and DVDs, giving the effect of a sea shedding scales of light into the location.

“The resulting reflections paint both the architecture and visitors with shimmering skeins of light, resulting in a subtly immersive installation.

“It is a joy to bring this work to Bristol; simply said it’s a post-Christmas winter warmer from the Antipodes.”

And Bristol Light Festival favourite, Swing Song is back bigger and better than ever.

Due to popular demand, the Bristol Light Festival team have been busy fabricating two new sets of swings for audiences to enjoy.

Each swing controls a different musical element – users have a choice of percussion, bassline and melody, and each movement contributes to the music generated by the swinging – swing low for chill beats and high for a dramatic crescendo.

Katherine Jewkes, creative director of the festival, said: “We’ve been blown away by how popular and well loved Swing Song has been for the last two years of the festival, so much so that we have invested in rebuilding the swings so that they can become a permanent fixture in the festival programme.

“With its playful immersion into colour, sound and light, it is a firm favourite for adults and children alike.

“We are excited to be unveiling the new swings in our fifth edition, before they then head out on tour, bringing a taste of Bristol Light Festival to different areas and showing what our creative industry in the city has to offer.”

Vicky Lee, director of festival founder Bristol City Centre BID, said: “All of the newly announced installations are set to bring an enhanced sense of togetherness to the festival as people explore the city.

“It’s especially great to be presenting our new swings and additional capacity to the artwork giving us the opportunity to immerse more people at once in the magic of the work.

“We are also considering a fast track ticket this year – there’s more to come on this as we get closer to the festival dates.”

Steve Bluff, director of Redcliffe & Temple BID, said: “There’s a real variety to the way people can enjoy Bristol Light Festival this year.

“Whether people are working together to create songs, contemplating water and movement, or just enjoying being under the glow of a huge disco ball, each new installation brings another dimension of sensory experience to our visitors.”

2024’s edition of the festival saw 275,000 visitors head into the centre to marvel at the artworks and brought £8.7 million of additional revenue to the area.