Liverpool LightNight 2017: programme revealed

LightNight returns to light up Liverpool’s favourite buildings and spaces with another packed programme. For the uninitiated, the annual festival joins forces with many of the city’s best-loved arts organisations, with venues open late into the night to help create a festival of light, music and performance celebrating the culture on offer in Liverpool all year round.

This year’s event is interested in the nature of time, with the press release promising that the festival will “investigate our experiences of the past, present and future of Liverpool, its people and the world we live in, as well as the influence of time on art, science and philosophy.”

Venues taking part in this year’s LightNight include old favourites Tate Liverpool, Merseyside Maritime Museum, Bluecoat, Black Lodge Brewery, Dorothy, Everyman Theatre, Walker Art Gallery, Baltic Creative, Open Eye Gallery and St George's Hall, while Unity Theatre will reopen to the public on LightNight following an £845,000 redevelopment with a special series of mini-commissions and a ‘reawakening’ ceremony.

Liverpool Philharmonic opens its main auditorium up for LightNight for the first time, alongside its Music Room space, to stage a night of performances from Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir, guitarist Craig Ogden, Rubber Duck Orchestra and more.

Liverpool John Moores’ University, meanwhile, opens up spaces across the campus for various activities, including mind-bending event Time, Space and Climate Change, which will feature experts from LJMU’s Astrophysics Research Institute and Department of Geography, who will delve into the vastness of space and past climates, and glimpse into the future to look at the impact of climate change.

Among the new venues taking part is Liverpool Parish Church, where Liverpool Biennial present new works by artists Frances Disley and Stephen Sheehan, and new Liverpool arts space Northern Lights, which will open its artist studios late to stage the LJMU candlelit labyrinth, live music and workshops.

Other highlights include a rare opportunity to explore the National Oceanography Centre after dark: see its intricate analogue tide-predicting machines alongside new work by artist Pamela Sullivan, while Western Approaches – a 1940s nerve centre of wartime Britain – offers up theatrical and comedic tour Impropriety’s Journey to the Unknown. Also unmissible on LightNight with be a visit to the city's two cathedrals, which both open their doors to music: there’ll be a mass singing workshop by Tracey Carmen and DJ Greg Wilson at Liverpool Cathedral, while Metropolitan Cathedral will see a special commemorative light art performance by Andy McKeown in collaboration with the cathedral choir.

You can also expect some stunning outdoor light art installations at Victoria Gallery & Museum and FACT, and a whole host of vibrant street drumming, theatre, puppetry and music throughout the night.

As usual, proceedings come to a close with the LightNight afterparty, this year hosted at Constellations. The night’s described as a “future-Polaroid / AV installation meets club project”, and is presented by artist Sam Wiehl and soundtracked by Andy Votel (Finders Keepers).