Last year’s festival brought a huge floating earth to Media City. This year’s festival has some installations which follow the environmental theme and many are fully interactive with digital effects and soundscapes enhancing the experience when close up.

Headlining this year’s festival is an ambitious audio-visual installation, Navvies by Artist Matthew Rosier. This poignant work is presented on water and recognises the role of the labourers who worked in harsh and often lethal conditions in the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal. The installation is accompanied by a new orchestral composition, composed by Hayley Suviste and performed by the BBC Philharmonic.

Other installations across the Quays this year include: 

Once We Were Water by Manchester studio – idontloveyouanymore, which allows visitors to ‘walk’ through the waters of a digitally recreated river which appears to flow over the Detroit Bridge, reacting to the movement of people. 

Studio Vertigo present two playful works at Lightwaves: Our Beating Heart brings the mirror ball to a grand scale with more than 11,000 mirrored tiles slowly rotating as a heart shaped sculpture, illuminating the surrounding space. End Over End takes inspiration from the beloved slinky in its giant form, playfully transforming buildings into a virtual playground, adjacent to the hexagonal tower of The Lowry.

An artwork that aims to raise awareness of the consumption of single-use plastics is Garden of the Deep. Artist, Diane Watson, has been working with local schools and community groups, to create a display of 1000 flowers made from discarded plastic bottles. 

Award-winning pioneers of outdoor art,  Walk the Plank, return to Lightwaves 2022 with Roost – a series of three nature-based fire sculptures which visitors can interact with to experience the MediaCity garden in a new light. 

Lightstream by Flora Litchfield uses sound and colour to transform surroundings, exploring human perceptions through special and audio-visual compositions. The installation draws our focus on water’s energy in the hope of bringing us closer to the nature around us and finding a new sense of harmony with the cityscape.

Taking us from the microscopic to the infinite vastness of the universe. MicroCosmic by Paul Miller in collaboration with the University of Salford, is an immersive installation of video, sound and projection-mapped sculpture.

Animating the iconic waterways at Salford Quays is Butterfly Cluster by Anne Bennett. Gaze up at a multitude of butterflies in the night sky – an experience both dreamlike and meaningful that everyone can enjoy.

Visitors are invited to meet NORMAN, the “interactive light and sound installation with attitude” from artist collective, Monomatic. A product of its time, NORMAN’s retro-futurist design reflects the technological aesthetics of the pre-Internet age.

Connections is an artwork commissioned by Quays Culture in collaboration with RHS Glow festival at RHS Bridgewater, created to connect the two events.  Profile pictures encased in resin cells are illuminated, highlighting our modern-day insatiable need for connection through social media likes and friends.

Kin has been created by Backstage Academy – a collective of second year live visual design and production students.  Using lights and video, it reflects the importance of community and the power it holds amongst the people. 

A permanent artwork at MediaCity, THROUGH No.4 by Liz West consists of a six-metre-long, triangular corridor of light and colour. The walk-through structure encourages visitors to look at their surroundings in a different light.  For Lightwaves, additional lighting will turn the multicoloured artwork into a ‘jewel’ in the dark.

Lightwaves is at Salford Quays from 1-4 December 2022. Running alongside Lightwaves each evening is the Quayside Festive Market which will take place outside The Lowry, showcasing a selection of local artisan produce.

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Public spaces around Salford Quays are illuminated daily 4pm-10pm from 6-15 December, with new and exclusively commissioned digital art displays, alongside emerging talent and interactive workshops, from local, national, and international artists.

The event, hosted by Quays Culture, includes world premieres together with more intimate motivations of digital lightwork, some involving human beings, like the Umbrella Project, from Cirque Bijou. This piece of work features 20 local Salford residents, who all operate hand-built LED umbrellas to create a kaleidoscopic moving light performance. Should the December weather not be kind these residents, they will at least be equipped with the most beautiful umbrellas of the season!

The world premiere of Keith Brown’s GeoThicket is a virtual reality experience inside The Lowry art centre. An immersive visual artwork, guests are invited to select their own path through a colourful, multidimensional, geometric wonderland, offering a whimsical escape from reality as the adventure alters with every step.

Many visitors returning to Lightwaves, will remember, Wave-field, the world-famous interactive musical seesaws which turn Salford Quays into an urban playground. Created by Lateral Office and CS Design, with soundscape by Mitchell Akiyama, the illuminated musical seesaws encourage interpersonal relationships with strangers and consolidate existing relationships between friends and family.

My personal favourite is the Light Orchestra, an interactive sound and light installation, having its European premiere at the festival. The installation invites visitors to become conductors, moving their arms to direct a symphony of light and music. From a conductor’s podium, visitors can direct an orchestra of motorised projectors that create beams of light and unique musical sequences that respond to the maestro’s movements. The installation aims to transform the public space into a concert hall; a luminous and musical community arena for self-expression, that acts as a catalyst to generate conversations and interactions.

If you like the idea of a digital Christmas tree, have a look at DigiTree, a state of the art, interactive LED installation, designed to bring the seasons to your feet. The new commission for 2019, has been created by Backstage Academy students. A large LED tree made of angular branches, the installation blooms with coloured light that changes to show the changing seasons of the year. The installation also includes an LED floor, fitted with tracking software that locates and reacts to the weight of a person as they move around on the floor to create illuminated magic at their feet.

Visitors are encouraged to download the free festival app on their smart phone during their visit to Lightwaves, where they will also discover, Groups of People, a new digital creation by Visioning Lab that aims to animate Salford Quays, using state of the art technology. Over the last month, local people have been introduced to virtual reality drawing tools and asked to respond to the work of LS Lowry. Their creations have contributed to this virtual artwork.

Blackpool Illuminations returns as an ongoing collaboration between the lighting behemoth and Lightwaves Festival continues. Spiro, this year’s installation, takes the form of an immersive walkway through a 25m light tunnel. The work, inspired by the shape of a cresting wave, invites guests to enter with pulsating, undulating light.

Quays Culture is exhibiting one of its own commissioned works, Cathedral of Mirrors by Mads Christensen, an installation of mirrored columns fitted with technicoloured lights. The work is located and exhibited in the University of Salford campus foyer at MediaCityUK, as part of the festival. For many, this may be there first visit to the University Campus and personally I would have liked to see more signposting.

The festival also brings three new SHINE commissions: The Happiness Sum by Gemma Wood, Portal of Reflection by Tom Lambert and Pharos by Joe Moran. The Happiness Sum is a colourful, playful installation that poses important questions about what activities make people happy and invites guests to check if they are maximising their happiness potential! I am happy to report that my chosen subject -Family- did score very highly! Again, I trust that visitors will be encouraged to visit the foyer of the University of Salford at Media City.

Portal of Reflection by Tom Lambert is a hexagonal installation of mesmerising radiating light and sound, viewed through special glasses, designed to alter your perception and take guests on a journey of self-reflection.

The third and final SHINE commission, Pharos by Joe Moran is a light sculpture, constructed from a series of lenses designed to absorb light from nearby sources and redistribute the light as colourful pulsating patterns.

Homage to the Rain has its world premiere at the festival, a short film that explores the global human connection through rain, the film is on a loop set to an original score. After the Lightwave World Premiere, it will be released globally online. The project is co-commissioned by Quays Culture and University of Salford Art Collection.
There are many Christmas lights already at Media City and throughout the year there are lights from and on the many buildings, restaurants and even the tram stop. Now the trees are festooned with lights too igniting an excitement of the festive season.

Lightwaves 2019, amongst its many offerings endeavours to stimulate the interaction of conversation about art in public spaces and long may those conversation expand and continue long after the festive season.

Lightwaves 2019 a free festival of light from Quays Culture is at Salford Quays from 6-15 December 2019.

Read about Lightwaves 2021.

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Last year’s festival saw 19 installations, including interactive art works using voice and body movements to create light changes. Indoors the nearby Lowry Arts Centre hosted immersive virtual reality experiences as part of the festival.

This year, the 10 day annual light festival will run from 6-15 December 2019, and again includes a number of original art commissions.

Emerging artists are supported to join the festival by the Shine Programme in partnership with Light Up The North Network. Following an open call for submissions in June, three emerging artists won commissions to create new light art works for the festival.

Tom Lambert is creating a light installation to transport visitors into a world of kaleidoscopic wonder, where they’re invited to shift perspective from mundane to fantastic. Gemma Woods is developing participatory neon artwork exploring themes of happiness, while Joe Moran is using fresnel lenses to create a rotating sculpture that emits beautiful patterns of refracted light.

The launch of Lightwaves 2019 sees the premiere of a new film, Homage to the Rain. The film, by artists Antony Barkworth-Knight, Rebecca Rae-Evans and Rob Turner, is a celebration both of our rainy city and how rain impacts environments across the globe.

The artists are looking for people to send in their videos for use as part of the film. To be included your video needs to be shot on a mobile phone in landscape.

The project is co-commissioned by festival organisers, Quays Culture and the University of Salford’s Art Collection. For more details and to submit your video contact Homagetotherain@gmail.com or complete a form via the website.

For more details about Lightwaves 2019 visit the Quays Culture website or for volunteering opportunities email participate@quaysculture.com.

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Architects of Air’s luminariums are inhabited sculptures where public art and the viewing public become one. Here people are transported, via a labyrinthine of tunnels and cavernous domes into a sensory world of light and colour, accompanied by a gentle sensory soundscape. Once inside, you’re free to explore the dazzling maze of winding paths and soaring domes.

Founder, Alan Parkinson’s intention is to stimulate visitors to a sense of wonder to the beauty of light and colour, creating an environment where visitors’ experience is influenced by their own reaction to the space. He explains: “What motivates me to design is the fact that I continue to be struck by the beauty of light and colour found in the luminaria. These structures nurture an awareness of a pure phenomenon that gently cuts through everyday conditioned perceptions an awakens a sense of wonder in people.

The idea originally grew out of a theatre project for people with learning disabilities, and inclusivity remains a central part of its work. The experience is fully accessible and suitable for all ages. However, children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult, with a minimum requirement of one adult for four children.

Since 1992 the Architects of Air have built 21 luminaria. Arboria, dedicated to the theme of trees, is the epic structure visiting Salford Quays. On entering, visitors encounter a green dome, one of the three 8m high domes, each dominated by a colour – red, green or blue. Venturing further into the luminarium visitors arrive at several 3-dimensional trees – combined of cones and spheres assembled to form a brightly luminous tree trunk with branches that extend high above their heads. The accompanying soundscape from Alice Eldridge combines her own piano composition with recordings made or biodiversity monitoring in the Ecuadorian cloud forest.

The light comes simply from daylight shining through the luminarium’s fabric, which means that each experience differs depending on the weather and changing light outside.

As a finale to the festival, at 5.30pm on Sunday 2 June Funambulist Chris Bullzini will perform a jaw-dropping high wire walk across the Quays. And earlier in the day there will be opportunities to for all ages to have-a-go at various circus skills with the chance try a tight wire walk for yourself.

Festival activities are free, but pre-booking for the luminarium is recommended because access is limited.

Quays Festival 2019 takes place from 30 May to 2 June at Salford Quays, Media City UK. Opening times for the luminarium are: Thursday 30 – Friday 31 May 2pm – 7pm; Saturday 1 June 12pm – 6pm; and Sunday 2 June 10am – 4pm.

Visit Quaysculture.com for details.

Read about previous interactive free light festivals from Quays Culture.

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The free interactive light festival features some favourites from previous years such as the Dr Who tardis and daleks, the giant squirrel and the heartbeat that lights up when two people hold hands to complete the connection.

There are also some new installations including, Youth Culture, a giant robot sculpture by Stanza, which was specially commusionned for this year’s festival.

A short walk from the Lowry to the BBC studios at Media City UK takes you past 19 art installations. Blackpool Illuminations have provided some popular characters and shapes to light the walk-way. And there are plenty of opportunities to get involved using voice and body movement to create light changes.

The majority of the art works are outdoors, but do pop into the Lowry theatre where you can try out the latest virtual reality headsets for an immersive psychedelic experience.

The University of Salford at Media City UK is also hosting an indoor exhibition as part of the festival, featuring work from a series of artists from the North of England who were part of a residency project last year.
Emerging artists are also supported to join the festival by the Shine Programme in partnership with Light Up The North Network.

And this year in the Media City gardens the programme has supported Jane Webb to create, Electroinika K9 Walk – a colourfully lit boy and his dog, with a detachable lead for photo opportunities walking the electronic canine.

Lightwaves 2018 is lit between 4pm and 10.30pm daily from 7-16 December 2018.

Visit the Quays Culture website for more details and to download an interactive map.

You can join a free tours of the art works starting from the Lowry Plaza at the following times:
Saturday 8 December 16.30;
Sunday 9 December 16.30;
Saturday 15 December 16.30;
Sunday 16 December 16.30.

Read about Lightwaves 2021.

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