Canning Town Light Night

Neon illuminations, interactive projections and glowing installations will light up the streets of Canning Town, London Borough of Newham, on November 30, 2013, for London’s first ever Light Night. The nights are rolling in early and the only lights brightening London’s wintery streets bare the twinkle of commercialism and Christmas come too early.

Don’t despair and – god forbid – DO NOT stay indoors this weekend. This Saturday the sparkle of true community spirit and creative endeavour will be illuminating the artistically fecund and perhaps under-explored Canning Town. Light Nights (or Nuit Blanche as we say in French) have ignited European cities and on home soil in Leeds, seeing galleries and other art institutions staying open after hours to play host to unusual cultural events.

This will be London’s first and as it is free and open to all, you would be foolish not to be a part of this unexpected and inspiring event. Brainchild of the ludicrously imaginative and resourceful ladies at The Brick Box, Canning Town Light Night’s programme is a sumptuously luminescent feast. The shadows will be well and truly blasted out with live music, performance, major new artistic commissions, games, workshops and of course a divine array of food and drink stalls.

All the way from New York, Leni Schwendinger (lighting urbanist/artist) will be giving a talk on the possibilities of light in cityscapes, followed by a Night Seeing walk which will explore urban space after dark – availability is limited so book your place here.

At Caravanserai 21 Artists will be exploring the theme of regeneration, people, places and identity through dance, illustration, food, film, and performance. Original artist installations include Light Echoes from Speirs + Major, a work of light, water and sound which will transform the darkest corners of the A13 underpass. Output Arts will give you the opportunity to project your own artistic intervention on to the underpass.

The already enchanting House of Fairy Tales will be lit with lanterns ready for a performance from multi-instrumental, technologically innovative Bishi, described by The Sunday Times as being ‘recognised as one of the most inspiring talents in British music today’.

These highlights are the tip of an ever-so-alluring iceberg. A specially designed map will guide visitors around the points of interest: the A13 underpass, Bow Creek Ecology Park, The House of Fairy Tales, Ashsakula’s Caravanserai and Core Arts’ Growing Space.

Co-director of The Brick Box, Rosie Freeman breaks the intentions of the event down as such – ‘Light Nights have a tradition of championing cultural activity after dark as well as making beautiful art accessible to many and Light Night Canning Town will be no exception. But the Light Night concept is particularly relevant in Canning Town because it is an area which suffers from negative perceptions and which truly benefits from the transformative power of the arts. Contrary to those perceptions and statistics of high deprivation, there is a strong community here and a real thirst for arts and culture’.

Light Night Canning Town begins at 6pm on Saturday 30 November and carries on until late. Get wrapped up warm, banish mid-winter blues and see you there!

Image by Roxane Grant