Nottingham Light Night 2024

Another February, another Light Night event. This is a real highlight of the arts calendar in Nottingham and as ever there was so much going on that we always have to be quite selective about what we visit. We started off as we have before at Sneinton Market which had an interesting light display in a box named Geist, the design of which is based off of a neutrino or “ghost particle”.

From here we moved on to St Mary’s Church which always puts on a good show and is therefore always very popular (we got there just after 6pm when the event started and when we left the queue was skating all around the grounds). This year’s multi-sensory event was called “Standing Ground” which used AI-generated images to explore our relationship with the natural world. It had some interesting videos to begin with, but the second half which was mostly words appearing on the screen didn’t garner much enthusiasm from the crowd.

Then we moved on to Nottingham Castle which I was glad to see back participating in Light Night. This was also our favourite part of the evening with a really good neon light trail through the grounds. Created by Chila Kumari Burman the trail was called Neon Dreams on Their Way to You, through which Burman explores some fun themes relating to her Indian roots. Some of my favourites (so hard to choose!) are below.

Then it was down to Market Square for an installation called “Our Beating Heart” a rotating sculpture in the shape of a heart made from mirror fragments that changed colour as it spun with different snippets of music playing each time. There were also hearts projected around the square, including on to the front of the Council House.

Always a good night out, all the installations are free to visit and if anything I think it was busier this year than last with lots of families with young children enjoying the lights. There’s still time to see the installations tonight – the event ends at around 10pm.