During the first week of February, my hometown of Bristol marks the end of winter by staging a light festival. The festival began in 2020 and this will be its fourth year, The 2021 was canceled because of covid. In Celtic mythology Imbolc marked the start of Spring.

The city streets are filled with vibrant colours and the coffee bars and pubs remain open so visitors can meet family and friends. In 2024 it attracted over 277,000 visitors. It allows local national and international artists to showcase their work.

The 2025 festival

This year the festival runs from Friday 31st of January until Sunday 9th of February. The centrepiece is a flock of white flamingos which have arrived in the moat outside City Hall. They are lit by the pink hues of dawn. The piece is by Bruce Munro an artist who trained at Bristol Polytechnic. He called it Ramanda’s table after a chapter in C.S. Lewis’s book “voyage of the Dawn Trader”.

We enjoyed watching the workmen installing the flamingos when we passed City Hall earlier this week.

The children enjoyed playing on the illuminated swings in Queen’s square.

The 2022 festival

I hope to be able to be able to bring you some photos from the 2025 event shortly but until then here is a flashback to a festival I attended in the pouring rain in 2022.

In 2022, the festival benefited from an Arts council grant which allowed the  organisers to add more daytime and green energy exhibits. First bus also reduced the price of a night rider ticket by 30% to encourage visitors to use public transport.

When I visited it was raining gently and the weather combined with the harbourside location meant that I was able to catch some of the reflections. I am not a keen enough photographer to say I appreciated it. Nonetheless as the festival in 2021 had to be canceled due to covid it was good to see some joy returning to the city centre.

Some of my favourite pieces

Feature image hands over the Arnolfini art gallery.

The slinky entitled “end over end” at Cascade steps was my favourite. I loved watching as the colours slowly changed.   

The disco ball in the background is actually a planetarium. Despite the rain a group of visitors had formed a conga line and were dancing to the music.

This large installation which flowed across the harbour was called Squid Soup which I am told is an American variety of hops. The building it was coming out of  is called the Left Handed Giant and is a brewery.

The purple building is a former lead shot tower used for making canon balls. I think it makes a good light house.

A more contemplative piece for this former religious building.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of this year’s exhibits. If you are interested you can find out more about the exhibits and the artists behind them here, Bristol light festival You can also download a map or book a guided walking tour.