Tag Archive: Lighting Festival

1. White Light Illuminates the Capital for London Lumiere Festival 2018

   5 February 2018 14:36 Comments Off on White Light Illuminates the Capital for London Lumiere Festival 2018

   The Lumiere Festival sees famous landmarks across London brought to life with innovative lighting displays. It recently returned to London for the second time following the success of the first edition in January 2016. Following its work on the previous Festival, White Light was called upon to provide its services once again for the free outdoor light festival in 2018.

   The London Lumiere Festival showcases the capital’s spectacular and iconic architecture and streets, through the vision and work of UK and international artists. In 2016, it attracted an estimated 1.3 million visits over four nights. The year’s edition had an expanded footprint extending north to south, from Kings Cross, through Fitzrovia, Mayfair, and London’s West End, to Trafalgar Square, Westminster, Victoria, South Bank and Waterloo.

   Following the success of 2016’s Festival, along with WL’s extensive experience in lighting some of London’s most iconic buildings, the company was once again called upon by Unusual Services on behalf of Artichoke (arts charity and the UK’s leading producer of art in the public realm) to support this world-class festival.

   WL provided lighting equipment and technical support to 11 projects across London.  The 11 individual installations were overseen by WL’s Senior Account Manager Dominic Yates and WL’s Senior Project Manager Martin Strods.

   Dominic comments: “We worked on the previous Lumiere Festival and were called upon to do so once again this year. This is largely due to our experience of working in a number of the iconic London venues where the Festival took place, along with our strong working relationship with the client and other suppliers involved”.

   The WL team spent two weeks at the company’s extensive pre-rig space in Wimbledon in order to prepare the equipment. Following this, the team moved into Central London where the on-site installation took six days.

   The installations that WL worked on included ‘Waterlicht’ at Kings Cross, by Dutch artist and innovator Daan Roosegaarde.  ‘Waterlicht’ was inspired by people’s changing relationship to water and the risk faced if action is not taken to tackle global warming and rising sea levels. In Grosvenor Square. the public enjoyed interacting with ‘Northern Lights’ by Swedish Artist Aleksandra Stratimirovic. This was a dynamic light-art piece inspired by the enthralling experience of the Aurora Borealis.

   To bring each project to life, WL drew on a range of equipment including SGM P5 LED Floods, Elation Six Par 200s, ETC Source Fours, cabling and mains distribution infrastructure.

   Dominic concludes: “This year’s Lumiere Festival was the most ambitious yet and it was fantastic to play a role in bringing some of London’s most recognisable landmarks to life using the very latest lighting technology”.

   Photos courtesy of Caroline Banks, Matthew Andrews and Mishmash Media. 

2. White Light Has Time in Lewes Light Festival

   2 November 2017 09:33 Comments Off on White Light Has Time in Lewes Light Festival

   LewesLight is a Festival of Light which celebrates the culture, history and environment in and around Lewes and the South Downs through the medium of light, art and design. It is a community-orientated event which was born out of the UNESCO International Year of Light 2015. White Light supported this year’s Festival by supplying a range of lighting fixtures.

   The Festival Community Co-ordinator is Phil Rose. He comments: “This is the third year we’ve run LewesLight and it was definitely the biggest one yet, with an estimated a footfall of over 10,000. Running the event alongside Festival Director Graham Festenstein, we had the idea to create a community festival which was all about Lewes. All of the services, from the volunteers to the lighting designers, is donated and our whole ethos is to create a community of learning and a supportive environment”.

   This year, LewesLight featured 26 installations, all of which were positioned across town. Due to their different locations, each one had its own specific needs of access and power. Phil explains: “This year we tried to compact the route and make it a more streamlined experience for those attending. The theme was that of trade industry and commerce and this saw the route go from the town hall, along the most affluent parts of town, across the main bridge and onto the Cliffe area”.

   It was on Cliffe High Street where the WL fixtures were utilised. Phil states: “Cliffe High Street is a Tudor Street with an array of independent shops. We wanted them to all come together holistically for the Festival and realised that lighting would be a way in which to achieve this. I actually spoke to WL’s Managing Director Bryan Raven at  this year’s PLASA Show about the project and he said the company would help in whatever way they could”.

   When it came to lighting the street, Phil and the LewesLight team had to overcome the practicalities of working outdoors. He explains: “We realised that getting DMX cable in and out of shops would be impossible. Therefore we knew we needed to run a wireless system”.

   As a result, Phil drew on 24 x CORE ColourPoint LED Uplighters. He comments: “Due to the ColourPoints being battery powered, they were ideal for outdoor usage and the fact that they are IP65 rated means they can be used in all weather conditions. The output was also really impressive and brought a street which is usually dead on a night alive with people of all ages”.

   LewesLight also allows local students to work alongside lights in a practical situation. Phil states: “It’s important for us to allow students to plan with the designers, organise access, help with the rigging and set up as this is invaluable experience that is not available on other courses. It’s almost like a mini-apprenticeship for them: they manage the sites, liaise with the designers and premises to deliver the schemes. This year they totally surpassed themselves”.

   The Festival ran from 13-15^th October and will return again next year. Phil adds: “This was another brilliant LewesLight and we were delighted with how all of the community came together to celebrate the town and its history. For us, the event should encourage people to think about lighting in a different way. We are extremely grateful to WL for helping us to achieve this and look forward to working with them again next year”.

   Photos courtesy of James McCauley.