Bristol Light Festival made its highly anticipated return (1^st-6^th March) with six evenings of stunning light installations across the city centre. Fourteen playful, immersive, and colourful artworks illuminated some of Bristol’s well-trodden paths as well as some unexpected places to create a city-wide event that was enjoyed by all.

The installations were met with excitement and delight as visitors of all ages and backgrounds explored the trail of light artworks created by world-renowned artists and the best of Bristol talent, all installations making their debut in the city. The programme was carefully curated to evoke feelings of discovery, play, peace and reflection, and people used the event as an opportunity to spend time with family, friends and loved ones whilst enjoying the city centre.

Disco fever took over Millennium Square as it became an open-air dancefloor and the Planetarium a gigantic disco ball, young and old enjoyed the light up musical swings on College Green, crowds gathered to watch an office building come to life on the waterfront and it wouldn’t be Bristol without an emotive artwork linked to Banksy on Park Street – these were just four of the 14 installations that made up the events programme.

Bristol Light Festival attracted a total of 170,000 visitors to the city centre to explore the city through light, shopping, eating and drinking along the way. This is almost double the number of visitors to the 2020 edition. Collectively, this year’s visitors totalled over 1.6 billion steps on their walk around the event – that’s more than the distance to the moon and back. The 2022 festival was a successful launch to the city’s recovery programme, and offered a safe, welcoming and vibrant way to see the city at night.

Vicky Lee, Head of Bristol City Centre BID said;

“It has been an incredible six days and we are delighted with how the event has been received and the positive feedback we’ve had so far. We wanted to create a vibrant and fun event that would attract visitors to enjoy everything Bristol has to offer, and seeing families, friends and people of all ages visiting the centre and interacting with the light installations has been fantastic. It really felt like an opportunity for the people of Bristol to reconnect with the city centre and each other.

“The event is an integral part of our programme to help business recovery after a challenging two years, it was great to see the city’s businesses benefiting from the footfall. Across the six days, we have monitored the economic impact and will be analysing this data to understand the commercial benefits as a result of the event.

“There was a really positive vibe across the city and people were happy to be back in the heart of Bristol and enjoying it as the vibrant city we know and love.”

Bristol Light Festival is presented by Bristol City Centre Business Improvement District (BID) working in partnership with Redcliffe and Temple BID, Arts Council England, Bristol City Council and Cabot Circus, and curated by the festival’s Creative Director Katherine Jewkes. The support from partners for this edition enabled the event to grow, commissioning new installations and incorporating new areas as a result.

Katherine Jewkes, Creative Director said;

“We really wanted to animate the city with colour, light and play. We know that it has been a difficult time for so many, we wanted to create spaces for family and friends to come together to dance and play, as well as calmer spaces to have a moment of reflection within the busy city centre.

“The best of UK talent is represented in this festival, and it was so delightful to wander through the city watching our community come together again.

“There were echoes of ‘Alright my luvver’ across Castle Park, children and adults alike playing on the illuminated swings on College Green, generations of family dancing together at the disco ball in

Millennium Square and so many people taking photos of our city illuminated in a brand-new way.  The way in which visitors responded to the light installations was very special, we’re very touched by all the lovely messages of joy and support for our artists, volunteers, and team.”