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Bristol Light festival launches to brighten up city

Maisie LillywhiteBBC News, Bristol
News imageBristol Light Festival A group of young women standing and looking up at a big pink flower glowing above themBristol Light Festival
The Nectary is an art and science crossover, highlighting the importance of pollinating insects

Wild animals, an astronaut and a giant flower are among the installations at a light festival this month.

Bristol Light Festival returns to the city on 2 February and will wrap up on 11 February.

Running from 17.00-22.00 BST every evening, the festival will brighten up the city with the works of artists from across the globe and clips from the BBC's Studios Natural History Unit (NHU)'s archive.

The event is free.

News imageBristol Light Festival An astronaut suspended in the air in a church, surrounded by flowersBristol Light Festival
Ascendance is one of the installations brightening up Bristol this month
News imageKatherine Jewkes, Bristol Light Festival & Tupp A close-up of a tiger's face with dots of yellow and orange light scattered all over it.Katherine Jewkes, Bristol Light Festival & Tupp
Katherine Jewkes, creative director at Bristol Light Festival, said the use of the wildlife footage in the festival is a "really exciting moment"

During this year's festival, the project WILDLIGHT will transform clips from BBC wildlife shows into life-size projections, reflecting more than 60 years of the Natural History Unit.

Bristol brewery Left Handed Giant, in Finzels Reach, will be transformed into a giant TV set, with life-size animals escaping the screen to the surrounding area.

News imageANDRE PATTENDEN Two children on a light-up swing installationANDRE PATTENDEN
Bristol Light Festival 2024 will run across 10 days and two weekends
News imageMARTIN OLLMAN Children play among huge art installations resembling iridescent bubbles at darkMARTIN OLLMAN
The artists behind the exhibition Evanescent hope to appeal to human beings’ universal playfulness
News imageAlan Hayes A series of reflective cubes stacked on top of one anotherAlan Hayes
Emergence is a huge, mirrored structure designed to "provide audiences with a new perspective of a once-familiar space"

Bristol Light Festival was founded by the Bristol city centre Business Improvement District (BID) and is being run in partnership with the Redcliffe & Temple BID.

Tuppence Stone, series producer and director at BBC Studios Natural History Unit (NHU), said the NHU wanted to "showcase wildlife in a new way".

She said: "Who doesn't want to see a huge humpback whale jumping, or the brilliance of fireflies dancing across a building? BBC Studios NHU is proud to be Bristolian and it's time to let the animals out of the TV."

News imageBristol Light Festival An artistic impression of Temple Church lit up in pinkBristol Light Festival
Temple Church will be lit up in pink as part of The Unfolding within the festival
News imageBristol Light Festival A map of Bristol, showing the names of light installations as part of the Bristol Light Festival. Evanescent can be found at College Green, Pulse is at the Amphitheatre, Swing Song, Info Hut and The Nectary are at Queen Square, Bristol Is Always A Good Idea is at Valentine Bridge, The Unfolding is at Temple Reach, Wildlight is at Finzels Reach, Ascendance is at St Stephens Church, and Elysian is at Quakers FriarsBristol Light Festival
A map of the art installations at Bristol Light Festival
News imageBBC Presentational grey line

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