The Snow Globe. Picture by James Robertshaw SUS-220102-125907001The Snow Globe. Picture by James Robertshaw SUS-220102-125907001
The Snow Globe. Picture by James Robertshaw SUS-220102-125907001

New Bexhill light art festival in pictures

A new light art festival in Bexhill wowed visitors and residents alike on Saturday (January 29).

The event, called Bexhill After Dark, was produced by events company, 18 Hours.

It featured 11 light art installations all around Bexhill town centre and an illuminated, wheeled parade.

Installations included The Beach Beacon, a collaboration between The De La Warr Pavilion and Bexhill College, which saw the art deco building become a

lightbox of shifting colours and projections, with the soundtrack created by Bexhill College students.

In Devonshire Square, audiences saw the Candle, where an aerial acrobat twirled suspended from a nine-metre-high candle produced by The Dream Engine.

Younger members of the public watched The Living Snow Globe by the Show Globe, a beautiful, friendly princess that glided about the square in her glittering globe.

A poignant installation was Shared Space and Light’s On the High Street, which saw the history of shopping being projected onto the shop window at Bexhill Chiropody Centre, highlighting the difficulties shopkeepers had experienced throughout the pandemic.

The We are Stardust parade by Radiator Arts, started at the De La Warr Pavilion and passed through the sparkling Stardust Gateway, created by Radiator’s Kate Bruce.

Circo Rum Baba’s lightship saw droves of illuminated bicycles, wheelchairs, mobility scooters, skateboards, drummers and even six illuminated flamingos take part.

At the town hall, Talking Heads by Impossible Theatre wowed audiences by projecting their faces onto giant screens and animating them with famous quotes from popular media.

Audiences also enjoyed illuminated juggling by the UK African Acrobats, a twisting fantastical illuminated Leviathan by Radiator Arts, Bexhill’s own Dolly Delicious, and Bexhill Heritage’s singalong at the illuminated Bexhill’s bandstand, which they are currently renovating.

The event was funded by Arts Council England and supported by an advisory panel, plus the Welcome Back Fund, East Sussex Arts Partnership, Bexhill Lions, Bexhill Chamber of Commerce and Rother District Council and 1066 Country, and others.

Mandy Curtis, director of 18 Hours, said: “We are so thrilled to bring an event with such a high calibre of installations to Bexhill. It’s been wonderful seeing the amazing turnout for this event and the support it has received locally.”

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