Wales’ biggest festive light trail is back and bigger than ever this winter – with a specially composed soundtrack and a UK premiere in cutting-edge lighting design as its grand finale.
Visitors to Christmas at Bute Park 2022 will be the first in Britain to see the brand new iridescent light orb experience ‘Prismatic’, designed by one of the UK’s foremost lighting designers, DBN Audile.
It is among a host of new installations being introduced in the event’s second year, alongside a magical ‘Light Canyon’ awash with a thousand mesmerising stars, a lake of light created by hypnotic lasers to create a ‘Liquid Sky’, as well as a sensory canopy of translucence, called Spectral Cloud, created by Wales’ very own Jessica Lloyd-Jones.
Jessica is a Llangollen-based visual artist working to explore the interaction of materials and light through sculpture and installation, and will combine light with hundreds of translucent ribbons to create Spectral Cloud.
Jessica said: “I wanted to make something spectacular and engaging, so we are creating a 20 metre long sensory walkway, in which the artwork hangs overhead. I hope visitors will respond to the work with delight, curiosity and wonder!”
Organisers have been working with event experts nationwide to make sure more than 70% of the visuals on offer are completely brand new for visitors, and also working on specially composed pieces of music set to accompany the trail this year too.
Roxy Robinson, Creative Director at From the Fields, the team behind Christmas at Bute Park, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to be bringing another cutting-edge and utterly dazzling array of visual and audio-based festive delights to the people of Wales again this year.”
“When we saw what DBN Audile had in mind in creating the ‘Prismatic’ installation we couldn’t wait to bring it to the audience here in Cardiff, and are delighted to be able to offer it to those visiting Christmas at Bute Park as a never before seen – and quite frankly breath-taking – spectacle.”
“We are also really delighted to be working with Jessica Lloyd-Jones and a host of other leading creative experts working both here in Wales and across the UK visual arts scene in helping us to create what is set to be a truly show stopping festive experience for all of those planning to join us in Cardiff city centre again this winter,” Roxy added.
Christmas at Bute Park takes visitors on a tour of festive delight around one of the capital city’s most beloved landmarks and through the biggest Christmas lights trail on offer in Wales, with the 2022 event set to return following a sell-out debut in 2021.
This year, there will be an even wider range of food and drink producers and a newly extended area for toasting marshmallows too. Greek Meating Point, Yorkshire PuddingWraps, Pizza Scorchinis, Hot Dogs Gourmet Griddle, Indian Keralan Karavan, Brownies Chock Shop, Smoking Griddle Cardiff, Churros Hermanos and a host of other suppliers are also among the new food offerings for 2022.
Christmas at Bute Park is also the only light trail in the UK to have signed up to the Attitude is Everything charter, launched to improve deaf and disabled people’s access to live music by working in partnership with audiences, artists and the music industry.
Roxy added: “We want to make Christmas at Bute Park a truly special event for as many visitors in Wales as we possibly can, and are working with a wide range of charitable and other organisations to make sure the event is a fully inclusive celebration for all the family.”
“This year is a chance to experience a never before seen set of visual delights that have been lovingly collated to help families in Wales kick off Christmas in style, and we want as many people to feel that same magic this winter as we possibly can.”
From November 24th, Bute Park will be taken over by a stunning array of festive laser, neon and flame-lit light installations and is expecting to welcome around 150,000 visitors to the 2022 event over a five-week period.
