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FESTIVALS OF LIGHT / LUMIERE, DURHAM, ENGLAND Photographs: Matthew Andrews
The star of the show. Elephantastic by Top’là Design attracted vast crowds to Elvet Bridge who could walk underneath the specially built stage enabling views of the front and rear of the elephant. The beautifully lit Durham Castle hangs in the background.
NORTHERN LIGHTS SHINE IN DURHAM
Lumiere in Durham, criticised last year for overcrowding issues, took a fresh approach to crowd control this year and it paid off.
To some extent, Durham Lumiere has been a vicitim of its own success. Created by Artichoke in 2009, the festival returned to Durham in 2011 attracting some 150,000 vis- itors to the city, bringing economic benefits worth an estimated £4.3m but also bringing problems in terms of overcrowding and complaints from the locals. This year, to spread the crowds, the festival had extended opening times and a free ticketed system during peak hours in the central area for the first time. On 17th November, the third edition of Lumiere Durham, which is commissioned by Durham County Council and supported by Arts Council England, came to a close. First estimates put the number of visitors at around 175,000 attending the festival over four nights.
Visitors from all over the world flocked to the festival to see the 27 light sculptures and installations, while the longer opening times enabled people to choose the most appropriate time to visit the festival. ‘Elephantastic’, a larger-than-life 3D elephant marching through a specially-con- structed arch on Elvet Bridge was a clear festival favourite. On North Road, crowds applauded at the end of each cycle of the Keyframes mi- ni-drama, which saw LED stickmen taking over the former Durham Miners’ Hall, to the strains of Lee Dorsey’s ‘Working in a Coalm- ine’ recorded by young people from Durham County Wind Band.
‘Solar Equation’, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s shimmering animated replica of the sun, features the world’s largest custom-made
spherical helium balloon. Nearby, visitors queued at the scanning booth to scan their own eyes and see the images added to Gina Czarnecki’s artwork, which was beamed onto the façade of the Bill Bryson Library. The sound of birdsong by night drew audiences into St Oswald’s Churchyard to explore Sarah Blood’s illuminated birdhous- es that filled hidden pockets with light and sound.
Further down on Old Elvet, people gathered around ‘Greenhouse Effect’, four electric cars filled with glowing displays of artifical plants, before moving on to Nathaniel Rack- owe’s ‘Platonic Spin’ in the Crown Court Gardens.
‘Crown of Light’, Ross Ashton’s glorious historical son et lumiere attracted record numbers, as did Atsara’s quietly mesmer-
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