A magnificent light extravaganza featuring dramatic displays, a 12-storey-high light installation and a parade featuring hundreds of schoolchildren will bring a city centre to life, later this month.
Medway’s naval city centre will be saturated with colour from 19 displays filling the high street on Friday, 10 and Saturday, 11 February as part of Medway Light Nights, organised by Medway Council in partnership with Emergency Exit Arts.
The two-day celebration will include creative displays, a street market with food stalls, a colourful parade and street entertainment.
The We Love Chatham Lantern Parade will kick off the festivities outside Café Nucleus at 6pm on Friday, 10 February. More than 600 children from 20 local schools and groups will take part in the Medway Night Lights Lantern Parade, produced by Cohesion Plus and Ideas Test - two local organisations which work closely with communities to provide cultural opportunities.
The schoolchildren will help transform Chatham town centre, unveiling creative artwork they have designed themselves, and made with support from Intra Arts, which runs a community arts venue in Rochester. The artwork will showcase what Medway’s young people love about Chatham, including boats due to the area’s connection to the River Medway and birds due to the local wildlife. The parade will also feature culturally diverse musicians, stilt walkers and street entertainers and follow Circo Rum Ba Ba's Light Ship along the high street.
Circo Rum’s Light Ship is a glowing frigate which rides the heaving waves as it battles the sea storms of the Chatham night. Its salt-soaked crew steer it through the streets desperately seeking refuge from the furious wind and waves. The captain bellows orders as the crew struggle with the sails and the figurehead wails with fear from beneath the bowsprit. Eventually, just as all seems lost, the figurehead spots land and the ship limps into refuge. As the sails are dropped the figurehead sings an aria so sweet that a Chatham albatross climbs the rigging and soars high above the deck in an accompanying aerial dance. The ship and crew are saved.
The light ship and parade will arrive at the front of Mountbatten House at 6.40pm, for a spectacular opening ceremony.
The Pentagon Shopping Centre, in the very heart of Chatham, will be transformed into a beacon of light which will be visible from all over the area. PIXELS from Lucid Creates will illuminate the iconic wall of windows of the 12-storey-high Mountbatten House, displaying mesmerising visuals which move across the building to tell a story of hope, light and joy. PIXELS is a celebration of the essence of Chatham, vast in scale - it will illuminate both the town centre and the river Medway as part of Medway Light Nights 2023.
Chris Carr, founder of Lucid Creates, said: “Mountbatten House is an icon of the local area and means a number of different things to a number of different people. It feels impossible to be indifferent about the building due to the sheer size of it and how it commands the skyline. The building itself has inspired us - its history within the area, its cultural significance, its shape and size. We’ve seen its potential, as artists it is incredibly exciting to be given both a canvas and platform of this scale. Our aim is to share both the inspiration and the excitement the building has given us through art that is accessible for all.
“The purpose of PIXELS is to show people how art can completely transform places and how culture can reimagine skylines, towns and entire cities. By turning grey, dull buildings into bright, colourful beacons of hope - we want people to see the importance of supporting the arts and creativity, and the role it plays in imagining a better future.”
Enter the wonderful world of Dr Kronovator’s Fire Laboratory where visitors will wander through a vista of flames and chemical reactions. Dr Kronovator and his team have prepared an experiment of flame and steam-powered contraptions that audiences are invited to activate. Created by Emergency Exit Arts, Dr Kronovator’s Fire Laboratory is a stunning interactive environment with ingenious fire installations for audiences of all ages.
To find out more about the other immersive installations and playful light displays, visit: visitmedway.org/lightnights
Cllr Howard Doe, Deputy Leader of Medway Council and Portfolio Holder for Community Services, said: “Medway Light Nights celebrates Medway’s thriving cultural scene and showcases the talents of local creatives. We are looking forward to hosting the spectacular festival in Chatham with 19 fantastic displays which will entertain crowds of all ages.
“I am also pleased that so many of Medway’s schoolchildren have the opportunity of taking part in the parade. Medway Light Nights supports our aspiration to make Medway even more child-friendly by creating more opportunities for our children and young people. It also supports Medway’s cultural strategy, delivered by Creative Medway, and aims for the area to be internationally recognised for its creativity and culture by 2030.”
Chatham is easily accessible with its own railway station with high-speed connections to London and excellent motorway connectivity.
To find out more about Medway Light Nights, visit: visitmedway.org/lightnights or look out for #MedwayLightNights and #LoveChatham on social media.