Tonight’s the Night!
Posted on 12th November 2009 by Holly Race | 3 comments (read)
Start off by heading to the Botanic Garden to see Power Plant (book your tickets in advance by phoning 0191 332 4041 and get a discount). Give yourself at least half an hour to find all the installations and absorb the music. Make sure you walk through them all, as the sounds and experiences change as you move around and amongst them.
Head back via Elvet Bridge and take a look at Winter Garden and then find Let Her Shine in Van Mildert's. Turn right into the Market Place and admire A Place for the People - see if you can spot anyone you know. Keep going, pass by Tesco's and Marks and Spencer, and play in Photon, before finding the little steps that lead down on the right. Keep following the steps into Fowler's Yard, and come across Work in Progress - a humorous little piece that's sure to put a smile on your face.
From there, go down Back Silver Street and follow signs to Millennium Place, where you can explore Motion Field. Head North up Freeman's Place and come across Bottle Festoon, which has been made by local schoolchildren and residents, then cross over the footbridge and join the crowds walking along the river's edge for Flux. Flux ends at Prebends Bridge, so head up the South Bailey and turn left into the Cathedral Gardens to see Ron Haselden's powerful piece Nine Men Drawing, which features images drawn by offenders from HM Prison, Durham. Continue into the Cathedral (maybe stopping off for a burger from the Undercroft's food stall to keep you warm) and have fun playing with Dune and walking underneath the swinging pendulums of Chorus. Outside the Cathedral be amazed by Crown of Light, the spectacular son et lumiere which features images from the Lindisfarne Gospels.
Head out of Palace Green and go down Saddler Street. Find the doorway through which you can see Echelle, and almost opposite you can view the ethereal Dress (for five people). Pass through the Market Place once more and go down Silver Street (don't forget to play in Photon again!). After the bridge, turn right into the Gates Shopping Centre, where you can view one of Tim Etchell's intimate neon signs. And if you've still got energy left follow the signs up to the railway station. From there you can not only see another of Tim's signs, but you can look back down on the city, glimpsing Air Vag's inflatable stars and moons, and perhaps the whole city lit up in strange colours.
That's it. You're done. Phew! Let me know if you do just have one evening to see everything - and let me know if you followed this route or compiled your own - as always, comments on the right.
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Comments
The suggestion for a map was a good one - in fact there’s a link at the top of this page: third from the left under the word “Lumiere”
http://www.lumieredurham.co.uk/map/
Chris | 13 November 2009 | Durham
A Google Map route would be great too for people who don’t know the area.
Simon Pearce | 12 November 2009 | Newcastle
You might want to edit your ‘best route’ page. I thought you had a bizzarre route until I remembered there was also a Van Mildert shop. The proper VM is a college not far from the Botanic Gardens
Colin Greenhalgh | 12 November 2009 | near Durham