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Illuminate Festival 2025: Shining a Light on Oldham’s Creative Future
- amberqueally
- Feb 17
- 4 min read
I’m beyond excited to announce the upcoming Illuminate Festival 2025, a celebration of light, creativity, and community! After a successful run over the past years, the Illuminate Light Night returns to Oldham for its eighth year, bringing together local, national, and international light artists to create a truly magical experience. This year’s theme, "Illuminating the Everyday", will shine a light on the ordinary moments and objects that often go unnoticed but hold incredible beauty when explored through the lens of art and light.
Save the Dates!
Saturday, 22 February 2025: Illuminate Light Night Free, across Oldham Town Centre, Gallery Oldham, and Oldham Library
Sunday, 23 February 2025: ‘Into the Future’ at Northern Roots Urban Farm and Eco Park
This year, Illuminate promises to be an unforgettable journey through Oldham’s townscape, filled with incredible installations, interactive exhibitions, and performances. Whether you’re a longtime fan of light art or new to the festival, there’s something for everyone!
What to Expect
The festival kicks off on Saturday, 22 February with Illuminate Light Night, featuring a stunning display of light installations and performances inspired by our everyday lives. As night falls, explore the glowing streets of Oldham, where art, technology, and community come together to illuminate the town.
A Parade of Light: One of the festival’s highlights will be the Illuminate Parade, a stunning procession of community-made lanterns creating a river of light through Oldham Town Centre. This luminous journey will lead to the Old Town Hall for the opening show, setting the stage for a night full of surprises and enchantment.
Exhibitions and Installations At Gallery Oldham, you can catch some incredible exhibitions and light art displays, including:
The Lights – The Grundy, Blackpool: A curated selection of light art pieces on loan from The Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool, celebrating the magic of light and its connection to the famous Blackpool Illuminations.
The DOME: Inside an inflatable structure, experience a series of 360° immersive projections created by Manchester Metropolitan University’s School of Digital Art (SODA) in response to the work of artist Chila Kumari Singh Burman.
MAPP – Alex P: Step into an interactive, mobile video-mapping system where your movements become part of a colorful work of art projected onto a wall.
Solar Maximum: My Exhibition at Gallery 4I’m incredibly proud to be part of Illuminate 2025 with my exhibition, Solar Maximum, which will be showcased in Gallery 4 (next to The Lights). This exhibition is all about the mighty power of the sun, showcasing the raw energy of the Solar Maximum, the peak of the sun’s solar cycle when solar activity is at its most intense. The exhibition explores the sun’s incredible light, which has shaped our existence on Earth and continues to be the most powerful force in our solar system.
Solar Maximum will feature up-close images of the sun's surface, captured by Simon Tang (aka The Stupid Astronomer on Instagram and YouTube), giving you an unparalleled view of solar flares and sunspots. These images offer a deep dive into the mesmerizing and sometimes violent energy of the sun, revealing its beauty and power in ways that are almost impossible to witness in real life. I’m honored to have had the assistance of Dr W. Dean Pesnell from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory at the Goddard Space Flight Center, whose expertise has helped this exhibition a reality.
I’ll be on-site at Gallery 4 throughout the festival to chat with visitors, answer any burning questions about the exhibition, and share the creative journey behind Solar Maximum. Plus, I’m excited to be handing out free activity books illustrated by the talented James Bannan and Mikey Morgan. These activity books, provided by Action Together’s One Oldham Children and Young People Fund, are designed to inspire creativity in young minds. Be sure to grab yours!
Workshops and Interactive Art: For those looking to get hands-on, the Light Up Art and Crafts sessions with Oldham Play Action Group and Light Painting workshops with Tim Simpson will provide fun and creativity for all ages. Don’t forget to bring your camera to capture all the glowing moments!
Sunday, 23 February: A Glimpse Into the Future
On Sunday evening, from 6:30 to 9:30 PM, head over to Northern Roots Urban Farm and Eco Park for ‘Into the Future’, a unique event that invites you to experience a world of technology, AI, and natural beauty through light art. Global Grooves and the intergalactic snail riders—Sleepy Pete, Rosemary Ripple, and Gastro Flash—will guide you on a luminous journey into the future, exploring what our world could look like if we learn to protect and nurture our natural environment.
Not to Miss: Incredible Light Art Installations
Several stunning light installations will also be showcased throughout the festival, including:
Reflect – Emma Gasson: An interactive light installation using a giant tank of water to create mesmerizing reflections in sync with sound.
The Matter of the Heart – idontloveyouanymore: A community-driven installation featuring real-time heartbeats from Oldham residents, creating a collective expression of the town’s interconnectedness.
Somnius – Illumaphonium: A mesmerizing light and sound installation that responds to movement, celebrating our relationship with the cosmos and nature.
This is the Place – Emergency Exit Arts: LED neon murals communicating themes of home, belonging, and migration, casting a rainbow of light over the surrounding environment.
A Bright Future Ahead
Illuminate 2025 is more than just a festival—it’s a celebration of creativity, community, and the power of light to transform our world. I’m so excited to be a part of this event, and I can’t wait to see how the vibrant, glowing artworks come to life.
Join us as we shine a light on the everyday and explore the future of light, art, and technology.
Don’t forget to swing by Gallery 4 for Solar Maximum, where I’ll be available to chat and hand out activity books for kids. I hope to see you there!
For more information and a complete line up of events, visit the Illuminate Festival website or check out the Illuminate 2025 program. See you on Saturday!
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