Durham, UK – Every two years, the local government here hosts the UK’s largest light festival: Lumiere.
It transforms the city of Durham at night into a beautiful, lantern-filled gallery where both residents and students can walk around and admire the bright colors.
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As students at Durham University, my friends and I got tickets and enjoyed a rainy evening wandering around, chatting and admiring the lights.
The event is commissioned by Durham County Council and produced by Artichoke, a company that works with artists to put art outdoors in public spaces.
With Durham’s many windy streets and huge range of old buildings (including Gothic architecture and most famously, the Norman Cathedral and Castle), the bright lights illuminated the city in a way that I had never seen it before.
Despite its nationwide fame, this is the last official Lumiere festival. In a controversial move, the Reform Council decided to axe future Lumiere festivals.
As expected, the crowds were huge and filled entire streets, particularly as people waited to see the huge field of flowers that decorated Palace Green outside the Cathedral.
There was security surrounding the city to make sure people without a ticket couldn’t get in. While well-intentioned, this made it difficult for people who were trying to go to town for other reasons.
With this being my first year in Durham, I didn’t realize that I would be stopped and aggressively told I wouldn’t be able to pass the barrier to get to my dinner reservation with my friends without the confirmation email (which I didn’t have as I didn’t book it.) I can only imagine that for residents who lived in town, it was highly inconvenient trying to get to and from the shops.
Still, Lumiere felt like an unmissable part of the Durham experience, particularly as this was the last one.
Despite the rain and wind, it was a lot of fun to explore Durham in a different way with my friends.
Gemma Christie is a Correspondent with Youth Journalism International.
