Light Up Poole 2019 is back and better than ever

The normally lifeless dark high street in Poole has illuminated itself with interactive art based on the theme of ‘Tides’.

Giggling children are excitedly running, jumping and playing whilst their parents and grandparents stand and watch in awe.

Couples all around are taking romantic pictures with a dramatic colour filled background.

Light is bouncing from one building to the other and in the distance, you can hear a faint tale of the celestial story.

Light Up Poole 2019 has started.

For three days the struggling high street is welcoming thousands to celebrate Poole towns culture, diversity and heritage.

Regional, national and international artists including creative director Lilly Battaglia are telling Poole’s narrative through 24 different light, art and digital installations dotted throughout the town.

The high street looks magical with colourful beams lighting up every corner of the quaint harbour town and a strong mouth-watering smell of seaside fish and chips fills the air.

People are navigating their way through the town just as excited and amazed about the next art spectacle as they were the previous.

On a typical dark February night Poole’s only source of nightlife are the pubs or the Lighthouse when it has an event.

But these next three days as you walk down through the maritime town there will be thousands flocking to see each exhibition and looking at Poole in a new light.

In addition to art and light displays the shops down the high street are encouraged to stay open later during the festival.

During Light Up Poole 2018 trade was said to have gone up by 40% and even more businesses are now getting involved this year.

Elspeth McBain chief executive for the Lighthouse in Poole said: “We want businesses to get behind the festival and see the benefit of cultural activities coming into the town to drive up the economy.”

Elspeth described the festival as “hugely effective and interesting” and said that it is “delivered beautifully”.

On average it will take an hour and a half to visit all of these immersive art exhibitions and to see Poole in all its beauty.

The 24 different installations range from silent disco’s, disused shops used to promote plastic pollution in the sea and projections on the town’s church accompanied by a narrative about the horizon.

The light and art spectacles fuse together the historic side of the town and the newer industrial side of the town.

Not only is this artistic light festival fun to visit, it’s also unique by being educational and combining science with art.

The festival was designed to emotionally resonate with the public.

You can clearly see the artists have delivered this, by looking around and seeing people from a diverse range of ages and cultures mesmerised by each and every one of the 24 instillations.

The festival is running from 21^st till the 23^rd of February from 6 PM till 9 PM.

Light Up Poole has made the town somewhere special to remember and is the perfect place to make memories this half term.