Leeds

On 10th October 2008 Leeds' fourth annual Light Night event will fill the venues and the streets of Leeds City Centre with spectacle, participatory entertainment, projections, and magical, sinister, surreal fun.

Light Night in Leeds is a showcase for the full range of creative activity in the city, with involvement from Leeds-based companies of national and international repute such as the West Yorkshire Playhouse and Northern Ballet Theatre, through local emerging arts groups, students, individual artists and the public themselves, who will all be expected to play their part!

The event now makes use of over forty venues in the city centre. Aswell as the established cultural mainstays such as galleries and theatres, the event takes over libraries, places of worship, public squares, shops, bars, barges, graveyards and prison cells, bringing a carnival of creative activity to unexpected spaces and thus shedding new light on the city centre for a night.  In 2007 the combined venues received in excess of 20,000 visits throughout the night, and we know that this will continue to grow year on year.

Outside of the venues, the events will create large spectacular, large scale, light based pieces of new art.

In 2007 the Civic Hall was transformed with projections of Myths and Legends of Leeds, submitted by the people of the city themselves. The Wellington Place Lifting Tower was bathed in a new interpretation of the text of the city's 1207 charter, created by the artist Peter Coates and commissioned by the developers behind the ongoing transformation of that area of the city. The event explores cutting edge technology.  In 2006 the audience were given the chance to upload their images of the night direct on to the BBC Big Screen, and the city is looking this year to explore new ways in which mobile communication technology can be used to enhance the experience of the evening, allowing audiences to share information, feedback and pictures of events all across the city.

View Light Night Leeds website