Members of the ILP North East Region and the SLL came together in October for an afternoon of CPD followed by a guided tour of the popular Light Night Leeds light and art festival.
By Paul Brownbridge
Light festivals have been growing in popularity during the dark winter months in recent years and so it was amazing – and informative – that ILP members were able to come together with the Society of Light and Lighting (SLL) in October at Light Night Leeds.
The CPD event, the first ever joint event between the SLL and the North East Region, took place on Thursday 23 October, with an afternoon of papers and networking at St George’s Conference Centre in Leeds starting from 2.30pm.
There was a great turnout and, positively, attendance appeared to be a broadly 50/50 split between ILP and SLL members.
WILDLIFE, SAFER STREETS AND DARK SKIES
The technical content got going with a fascinating paper, titled ‘Lighting and Wildlife’, presented by Lee Gunner, owner and director of LightPaD.
This covered just some of the questions Lee has been asked in the past by ecologists and planners when preparing or reviewing lighting designs.
This was followed by another interesting paper, named ‘Darker Skies or Safer Streets?’, delivered by Clare Thomas, head of applications and solutions at Urbis Schréder.
This paper looked at just some of the research that has been undertaken around people’s perception of safety when out in the public realm, from a male and female perspective.
The technical CPD session was closed by Mike Hawtin, head of nature recovery projects at North York Moors National Park Authority.
His paper, titled ‘Protecting Dark Skies’, gave a fascinating insight into the work he and his team are undertaking within the National Park to reduce obtrusive light and skyglow, and to promote the dark skies as a tourist attraction.
After a short break for coffee and a bite to eat, the attendees then ventured out for a guided tour of the Leeds Night Light arts and light festival, which weaved throughout Leeds city centre (and see the panel below).
Expertly chaperoned by our ‘tour guides’ for the evening, David Battersby, Society of Light and Lighting regional representative for Yorkshire, and Jack Cunningham, lighting solutions manager for Urbis Schréder, we were guided through the large crowds. David and Jack made sure we were where we needed to be at the correct time to see the installations.
The 2025 festival (which ran from 22-23 October) had an over-arching theme of ‘Landmarks’. Installations across the city aimed to celebrate historic civic buildings, modern architecture and public spaces, while also encouraging visitors to think about places which are important and memorable to them.
‘PORTALS: THE MACHINE OF WORLDS’
First stop for our party was in Millennium Square, where we watched a projection onto the Civic Hall. This was titled: ‘Portals: The Machine of Worlds’ and was a visual and sensory journey through imaginary worlds, created by Portuguese artists Ocubo.
We were led by a hot air ballon and invited to enter universes of science, illusion, and discovery, incorporating imagery from books by authors HG Wells and Jules Verne. Each portal opened up a new reality, from discovering stars, the invention of telescopes and spaceships, to unknown planets and extraordinary creatures.
Next stop was the ‘Briggate Zone’, where we sought peace and tranquillity, away from the crowds, in St John The Evangelist’s Church. Here we viewed ‘Beacon’ with its glowing, bodily coils entwined around the central pillars of Leeds’ oldest church.
Back out into the crowds, we were then treated to a couple of roaming art installations; hence David and Jack needing to get us to the right place at the correct time, which they did very efficiently.
These were ‘Living Lamp Posts’ and ‘Enchanted Woodland’. The Living Lamp Posts stood at over 10ft tall and were elegant Victorian-style lampposts ‘wandering’ through the street (pictured above).
With a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’, they definitely had a French feel about them; murmuring in a French accent they reminded me of a candelabra. The Enchanted Woodland, on the other hand, was a story about three animals emerging from an ancient forest and experiencing the bright lights of the city for the first time.
There was a majestic stag, a friendly bear, and a lively drumming squirrel. They created a magical encounter as they greeted the people of Leeds.
This was of course just a snapshot of the festival – there were many more installations to discover, spread across the city, with the whole event running over two evenings – and a real treat for those who live in Leeds!
SHAPING ATMOSPHERE
From here, we said goodbye to our guides and began our journeys home, reflecting on what we had learnt from the CPD papers and the stories that were told through light in the installations and exhibitions.
My conclusion? Light has the power to shape atmosphere, uplift our moods, and extend our lives well beyond sunset, as the buzz of the festival very well illustrated.
Yet, as we celebrate its benefits, we must also respect our dark skies, as our CPD papers also emphasised. The night sky connects people across the world, but vast populations no longer have the privilege of experiencing true darkness and the wonder it reveals.
Paul Brownbridge IEng MILP is Chair of the ILP’s North East Region as well as a lighting engineer at Stainton Lighting Design Services
This is an abridged version of the article that appears in the January edition of Lighting Journal. To read the full article, simply click on the page-turner to your right.
Image: one of the ‘Living Lamp Posts’ at Light Night Leeds, courtesy of Leeds City Council
