Festival of Light 2019 at Westquay, Southampton

I think it's safe to say that most of us are ready now for the brighter, longer days. In the meantime though, while we wait for Spring to make an appearance, there's the annual Festival of Light to brighten up our evenings.

Held at Westquay Shopping Centre in Southampton and in the shadow of the Old Walls, the event is returning with new installations, one of which is a bespoke commission especially for the event.

Some of the pieces there included The Wave - a series of suspended orbs which changed colour.

Lightbattle - where two sets of bicyles face one another and used pedal power to send light across the archway. This seemed very popular with all ages - even if some of  the little ones had trouble reaching the pedals!

Sunrise was the bespoke piece commissioned for the festival - this dome of twinkling, colour changing lights was hypnotic when you stood underneath.

The perfect backdrop to all of this was The Old Walls - I wonder what stories they could tell from all that they've seen over the years.

The Festival of Lights runs from the 15th to 24th February. It's a free event so if you still have time for a visit, I'd recommend it.

Thanks for reading

Cathy
xx

The Maze Southampton

Recently there was a new addition to the Southampton landscape. A 9,000 square foot maze made of real hedges took over the Esplanade next to Westquay Shopping Centre.

It was free (how many times can you say that nowadays?) so on what turned out to be the hottest April day in 70 years, we wandered down to have a look.

I think the other half was having far too much fun, after sticking his finger over the lense in most of the pictures, he then decided to make a run and leave me to navigate the maze on my own. It turns out there's quite a few dead ends and wrong turns to take...

After successfully navigating out just before a group of excited schoolchildren, we climbed up to the top of the old walls for a better view.

The Esplanade has been home to some great events recently. At Christmas it housed an ice rink and recently The Festival of Light - I can't wait to see what's here next.

(The Maze at Southampton is on until the 22nd April 2018)

Thanks for reading

Cathy

xx