Dazzling Birmingham Light Festival programme announced

Birmingham Light Festival has released the list of dazzling installations which will transform the city centre into an illuminated, open-air gallery next month.

A programme of events – running from 19 to 22 February - has been revealed, giving visitors more than 50 opportunities to fully immerse themselves in the festival.

Eleven installations will transform the night in locations across the city centre from 6pm to 10pm, with artwork popping up in Birmingham’s streets, squares and public spaces.

Flux, by French design studio Collectif Scale, will bring a display of dancing light beams and electronic music to Snow Hill Square.

Centenary Square will become a space for play, hosting several participatory artworks including Floor is LAVA x Silent Disco.

Funded by United By 2022 and created by Outdoor Places Unusual Spaces, the ultimate silent disco experience will encourage festival goers to dance along to their favourite party tunes until they hear the ‘Floor is LAVA’ track, when they’ll need to avoid the lights.

Visitors to Centenary Square will also be able to enjoy Twist & Shine by Kaleider, a collection of interactive light prisms that can be twisted into thousands of shapes, and ahead of the Yonex All England Open, Badminton England will be challenging visitors to a game of Night Badminton. 

A Birmingham Light Festival map is available for download from the festival website, making artworks easy to discover and allowing visitors to be ‘called’ to discover an extra glowing surprise in the Colmore area.

All artworks are fully accessible, with step-free access and an audio description tour running on the Thursday evening.

Alongside the illuminated artworks, a programme of over 50 events will be running, staged by organisations and venues across Birmingham.

The full programme is available from the Birmingham Light Festival website.

Alex Nicholson Evans, city curator, said: “We’re so proud of the way that our city has come together to deliver what is shaping up to be a truly spectacular festival.

“It’s thanks to our incredible partners, artists, and businesses across Birmingham and beyond, that we have an amazing line-up of artworks and events that will give people so many opportunities to see our city in a different light!”

Caroline Davis, managing director of Outdoor Places Unusual Spaces (OPUS) and executive producer of the Birmingham Light Festival, said: “Across the city centre, our public spaces will come alive with beautiful artwork and fun events for absolutely everyone to enjoy, we can’t wait to watch visitor’s faces light up too.

“We hope that we’ll get to see visitors from near and far enjoying the programme, there’s definitely enough on there to warrant a couple of city centre visits. February is going to be quite a lot brighter!”