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Friday the 12th October saw Leeds transformed into a maze of music, theatre and culture as the Light Night Celebrations returned to the city for its 3rd year. Light Night, part of the Celebrate Leeds festival, filled the city with unique and exciting events such as aerial choreography, ‘crazy’ dancing, ghost stories and historic trails around the city. The concept behind Light Night is to transform the Leeds you know and love into a city full of mystery and wonder, aided by venues and businesses across the city. Leeds University contribute to Light Night in various parts of the campus – this year saw ghost stories told in the grand and gothic Brotherton Library, jazz performances in the Clothworks Court and a dance production in the Union’s Riley Smith Hall. Briggate played host to The Institute of Crazy Dancing for the evening, and the Leeds Parish Church Choir added a choral evensong to the night’s musical festivities. Art exhibitions were also staged around the city, with a Celebrating Leeds 1207-2007 photography exhibition in Millennium Square. A large focus point of the Light Night festival was the Royal Armouries Museum. My friends and I headed to the Armouries’ Tiltyard for Illuminati, arranged by Red Crow events. The performance told the age old story of good vs. evil, featuring an innocent damsel in distress and even a unicorn. Fire juggling, stunt riding and sword fighting made the battle between the Lord of the Rings-esque baddies (who kidnapped both the damsel and the unicorn, the fiends) and the dancing pixies (friends of aforementioned damsel) even more visually enthralling, with stunt riders hanging upside down from their saddles, batons of fire twirled effortlessly, and a somewhat amusing, but well choreographed sword fight. Obviously, the good guys won. Armouries Square hosted Urban Angels, courtesy of Human Sect, an aerial choreography performance centred around a single metal frame and numerous sashes of material, trapezes and bungee chords. The insect-theme of the performance, featuring lycra, antennae and butterfly wings was beautiful but utterly bizarre, with the grace and talent of the gymnasts keeping a sizable crowd entertained for the hour-long performance. The crowds that descended upon Light Night’s numerous events and exhibitions demonstrated that there was an event for people of all ages and preferences, with children’s events staged in the Light, family fun such as Illuminati and the dancing on Briggate, and cultural offerings such as the film festival in Hyde Park Picture House and the Mosaic Arts Market on Assembly Street. The residents of Leeds who ventured out to see what their city had to offer were also well looked after – the Metro Free City Bus, which normally stops running at 7pm, extended its services to midnight in honour of the Light Night celebrations and even added an extra stop at the Royal Armouries to ensure no-one missed out on the festivities. It’s often said that no matter how long you have lived in Leeds, there’s always something new to discover – the city is rich with entertainment and the arts, history and culture. Light Night 2007 was a celebration of this – a celebration of the unique and often mystical talents of local performers and artists. It’s a sentimental kind of evening – wrapping up warm, exploring the city and realising just how special your home town is. |
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November 26th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Hi. Just for the record, The Leeds Parish Church Choir added a choral evensong to the Leeds Pageant which was a large scale community theatre event produced by the Leeds Church Institute and Leeds Parish Church and creatively facilitated by Pointed Arrow Theatre company. Sorry to moan but it definitely was not a music event :0)
Also have you heard that Kate and James who have run light night for the last 3 years have not had their contracts renewed because the council have not bothered to find the money to re sign their contracts? It is total madness that light night can be such a massive success and that cites both nationally and internationally are so inspired by it they are starting their own ‘Light Nights’ and yet the people responsible for it are out of a job??
What are the council playing at???