Illuminate Adelaide, a spectacular winter light festival returns from 28 June to 30 July 2023 with immersive events like City Lights and Light Creatures while the Adelaide Botanic Garden will light up with a new experience from the visionary team behind sell-out sensation Light Cycles, Resonate. This year, Architects of Air: Arborialis, an inflatable labyrinthine wonderland of colour and light debuts at Rymill Park/Murlawirrapurka.
Adelaide’s streetscapes and iconic locations will be transformed into a spectacular interactive experience that combines the best and boldest in art, music, technology and invention. This is the perfect winter event for families with free and ticketed events for all ages.
FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS
City Lights
Adelaide’s biggest free program of art, light and technology is back turning its most iconic urban landscapes into a high-tech playground of colour and sound.
Open, accessible, and running nightly from 07 July, Illuminate Adelaide’s flagship centrepiece invites the young and young at heart to explore our beautiful city in a surprising and playful new light.
Across Adelaide’s north, east and west precincts, City Lights takes in beloved cultural institutions, iconic heritage architecture and secret hidden treasures to curate a night on the town unlike any you’ve experienced before — or ever will again.
And it’s just getting started. Including an all-new series of installations to discover packed with open-air artworks, interactive sculptures, and boundary-pushing experiments from the world’s most innovative artists, 2023 promises to be the brightest City Lights year yet.
Read our 2022 review of City Lights here
Resonate
A new experience from the visionary team behind sell-out sensation Light Cycles will transform the Adelaide Botanic Garden with six all-new installations along a brand-new night-time trail through the garden’s ground. Moment Factory once again invite us to resonate deeply with our environment through their spectacular signature mix of light, technology and original soundscapes.
After two sold-out seasons of Illuminate Adelaide’s runaway hit Light Cycles, the Canadian studio will take everything they’ve learnt about Adelaide Botanic Garden to reveal this awe-inspiring new after-dark experience. Beginning from the Gardens’ North Terrace gates and pushing technical innovation even further, Resonate promises to captivate by highlighting nature itself – brighter, bolder and more immersive than ever.
Light Creatures
Step through the gates of the historic Adelaide Zoo after dark to experience a mesmerising and immersive tribute to the natural world.
Like nature at its best, this family-friendly highlight of Illuminate Adelaide continues to grow and evolve, and after two hit sell-out seasons in 2021 and 2022 you’ll be meeting new species of larger-than-life characters and interactive installations, alongside your favourites.
Witness gentle giants that wake at sunset, gaze up at floating jellyfish in the underwater world, and be swept away by the spectacle of the newest Light Creature for 2023 – the majestic golden Falcon.
Read our 2022 review of Light Creatures here
Architects of Air: Arborialis
Lose yourself in a labyrinthine wonderland of colour and light at Rymill Park/Murlawirrapurka
A global phenomenon for the past thirty years, the inflatable mazes of UK-based Architects of Air have transported audiences of all ages from around the world to alternate realms of the not-quite natural.
Through their series of Luminaria, Architects of Air create illuminated, inflatable structures that are somehow both expansive and cosy, providing spaces to explore and spaces to rest. As you choose your own way through each Luminarium, you’ll have a calming, sensory-driven experience guided by sound, light, and colour.
In an Australian premiere, the latest instalment in these innovative experience-makers’ series of installations is Arborialis – a labyrinthine wonderland that recalls the light-dappled canopies and awe-inspiring trunks of forests around the world. Featuring a soundtrack straight from the world’s most untouched ecosystems, Arborialis is the perfect place to wander, explore, and relax, losing yourself in the twists and turns of each branch of the Luminarium.
New Light 2023
Presented by Illuminate Adelaide and ANAT, New Light 2023 showcases experimental and diverse moving image works by contemporary First Nations artists.
New Light 2023 will feature commissioned work that explores compelling and complex concepts, with artworks being exhibited on the media screens at the entrance to the Adelaide Festival Centre as part of Illuminate Adelaide’s City Lights program.
Base Camp
The light of the party for Illuminate Adelaide 2023 and claiming space in the glorious Rundle Park / Kadlitpina, Base Camp is your go-to destination for a memorable night right in the heart of Illuminate Adelaide’s month-long season.
With a fresh new design and in layout in its new parklands home, Base Camp is conveniently placed just a few steps from the beginning of the City Lights trail, Architects of Air’s inflatable luminarium wonderland in Rymill Park / Murlawirrapurka, and Adelaide Botanic Garden’s North Terrace gate — the new entrance to Resonate and sequel to sell-out hit Light Cycles.
Head in, rug up and gather by the Base Camp fires to kickstart your Illuminate Adelaide experience with music, food and beverages from South Australia’s favourite producers. And don’t forget our ever-popular incandescent fairy floss to hit your sweet spot!
Image: Moment Factory
Mirror Mirror
An Australian-first experience fresh from its premiere run in Montreal, Mirror Mirror is a playground of interactive technology inviting you to discover your own creativity. Sharing a unique experience with everyone who enters, this series of immersive digital installations spanning from the forest of yourself to a reimagined hall of mirrors is specifically designed to awaken your consciousness with the latest cutting-edge interactive technology.
Inside the revamped and remodelled Illuminate Pavilion at its latest home in Victoria Square / Tarntanyangga, Canadian multimedia studio Moment Factory and minds behind sell-out Illuminate Adelaide experience Light Cycles take their talents indoors for this awe-inspiring self-guided tour changing with every audience interaction.
Whether sharing your memories to pen digital poems, transforming your words into dazzling light displays, sending ripples through a river of time with your movements or simply marvelling at the possibilities that await inside, Mirror Mirror promises to ignite the sense of play and discovery in visitors of all ages.
Which journey will you choose?
Image: Moment Factory
New Light 2022 is a free event showcasing experimental and diverse moving image works by contemporary First Nations artists.
Of course, there are many other creative and inspiring events in the Illuminate Adelaide program that are suitable for families that you can read about below.
For more information and all enquiries please visit the Illuminate Adelaide website.
What: Illuminate Adelaide
When: Wednesday 28 June – Friday 30 July 2023
Where: Adelaide, South Australia (various venues)
Who: Everyone
At Play & Go Adelaide we make every effort to provide accurate information to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. We recommend confirming times, dates and details directly before making any plans as details may be subject to change.
Image Source: Play & Go; images supplied
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