Bristol Light Festival unveil a landmark collaboration with BBC’s Natural History Unit

Bristol Light Festival unveil a landmark collaboration with BBC’s Natural History Unit

Posted on: 24 Jan 2024

Organisers of the beloved festival – which runs next month – have announced details of a brand-new installation, entitled ‘WILDLIGHT’.

 

Bristol Light Festival is a FREE event that runs across Bristol between Friday 2 and Sunday 11 February 2024.

 

This world premiere installation will debut in the home city of BBC Studio’s Natural History Unit, giving festival goers the chance to get up close and personal with some of the planet’s most majestic animals, which will escape from our televisions and onto the streets of Bristol.

 

Find out more from the Bristol Light Festival website.

 

 

BBC Studio’s Natural History Unit has called Bristol its home ever since 1957 and is a pivotal part of the city’s modern history. WILDLIGHT uses archive clips from iconic BBC wildlife shows, transformed into incredible light projections, allowing audiences to truly immerse themselves in nature through the medium of light.

 

With animals projected to real life scale, WILDLIGHT will explore how we see the world, following passages of light across the globe and the curious bioluminescence – light from creatures such as fireflies. This artwork will reflect over 60 years of BBC Studios NHU making wildlife films and working with light to capture wildlife worldwide.

 

The light installation will see Left Handed Giant transformed into a giant TV set with animals escaping the screen to the surrounding area; visitors will be confronted by dolphins leaping out of the Avon, penguins peaking around corners, meerkats playing in the Boca Bar and monkeys monkeying around.

This work will feature footage from beloved TV series including Frozen Planet II, Blue Planet II and Seven Worlds, One Planet – viewed by over a billion people globally. The installation has been created through a collaboration between Bristol Light Festival, BBC Studios and Stage Sound Services.

 

Katherine Jewkes (Bristol Light Festival’s Creative Director) has said:

 

“To present something so mesmerising as part of this year’s festival feels very special. BBC Studios is the home of spectacular wildlife footage, and it is something that most of us will have grown up watching in our living rooms, so for it to be brought to life outdoors in such a playful way in Bristol is a really exciting moment for us.”

Bristol Light Festival is a FREE event that runs from Friday 2 to Sunday 11 February 2024 with the installations lit up every evening between 5 PM and 10 PM.

 

This year’s festival will see the return of last year’s ‘Swing Song’, the world premiere of ‘Ascendance’ from celebrated duo Studio McGuire, two installations each from This Is Loop and Atelier Sisu, and Alison Smith’s ‘The Nectary’. Find out more from the Bristol Light Festival website.

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Article by:

Stanley Gray

Stan is a born and bred Bristolian, recently graduated from studying English Literature in Sheffield. His passions are music and literature and he spends the majority of his time in venues all over the city, immersing himself in Bristol’s alternative music scene. A lifelong Bristol City fan, Stan’s Saturdays are spent watching his team both home and away.